Our Visit to Cuenca

CUENCA – Tuesday 25th – Thursday 27th March 2025

Our group set off early for Cuenca, having discovered to the delight of the those of us who’d been on U3A trips before the chaos of both Brexit and Covid that our driver was Pepe, a very familiar face. Which is just as well as his impeccable driving skill was much needed on the road into Cuenca’s old town which winds along the edge of the ravine. I was not the only one to have my eyes closed for much of the ascent!
We stayed at the Leonor de Aquitania Hotel, which all agreed deserved more than its 3-star rating. The booking-in process was fast and accurate which I was able to deal with while we were all eating the delicious lunch the hotel provided on our arrival. Free to explore the town in the afternoon we met up again for drinks in the hotel bar in the early evening before going our separate ways again for dinner.
The next day was spent visiting the cathedral and various museums and other interesting buildings in the old town, while many also decided to take the tourist train. This proved quite an eye-opener as we discovered how the old town joins seamlessly with the new, a fact we hadn’t appreciated on the long sinuous 6km climb of the day before.
Cuenca’s economy was originally based on the textile industry: however today it is mainly focused on tourism, which has been boosted since its old town was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996.
Cuenca preserves an important historical and architectural heritage throughout the old city, where buildings such as the cathedral or the famous Hanging Houses stand out, which have become the icon of the city. There are numerous museums, the most notable of which are the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, the Museum of Sciences of Castilla-La Mancha, the Paleontological Museum of Castilla-La Mancha and the Cuenca Museum.
Negotiating the steep roads of the old quarter certainly tested our fitness during our stay, so we were heartily grateful that the hotel offered a van to transport our luggage back to the pick-up point on the last day.
Our visit to the spectacular rock formations of the Ciudad Encantada on the return journey was most rewarding even though the early morning cold meant quite a few preferred to indulge in a warming beverage in the cafe instead.

Many thanks to Sergey for providing the following video of the visit to the town …

… and this slideshow of the Enchanted City