Sunday, 12 April 2015

Hanging houses of Cuenca, Castille La-Mancha, Spain

The view towards Cuenca across the gorge
This weekend we played tourist! 
With a lot of tramping across the city of Madrid checking out key sights and devouring the walking tours! However on Sunday Kara and visiting friend Alix took a road trip to the old city of Cuenca (when John was in Barcelona playing rugby). 

Having heard about Spain's very popular ride share program (blablacar) we thought we would give it a try and on Saturday evening arranged a ride with a local air hostess (heading home after her shift). The drive, which saved us both time and money was safe and convenient and when we weren't intermittently dozing off we 'tried' to make small talk with the other native Spanish speakers also sharing the ride. 
The road towards Plaza Mayor


We drove through the countryside towards the province of Castille La-Mancha, which is the south east border from the province of Madrid arriving to the city's Plaza Mayor around 11.30am. By this time we were pretty hungry so found a table on the terrace and Alix masterfully ordered us coffee and orange juice! This came with a traditional tapa from the area- super, super garlicky potato puree on crusted bread... not your usual breakfast treat, but quite likeable.... but we also got a plate of olives to nibble it down with (after some confusion where the waiter just brought an empty plate)....?? 

The old city is built above and alongside a steep river gorge. The Rio Huécar below, just visible from the cliff face moves slowly lingering along the banks. 


Although not as old as many other cities within Spain, its still pretty old by our standard and it was colonized in 714BC by the ruling Muslim Arabs. Since that time it became a strategic location which rose and fell with those that conquered it, but generally those that lived there, lived in prosperity due to its advanced and well maintained textile and farming industries. 

Cuenca- Plaza Mayor
Cuenca is particularly known for its hanging houses (casa colgadas). Which are, as the name suggests houses which 'hang' over the steep cliff face. So after our breakfast we waltzed up past the stunning Cuenca Cathedral and then down several twisty and turny lanes to find the 'Puente de San Pablo' bridge' and viewing area. Truthfully the houses themselves weren't as impressive as we thought they would be (beautiful none the less) however we were more enchanted with some of the amazing buildings surrounding the main plaza as well as the traditional Spanish cobbled paths and all the colourful houses.  One of the best things about visiting Cuenca is that it is off the beaten track and wasn't very touristy. This gave us ample time to quietly explore the city before heading to lunch. 

Cuenca Hanging Houses
Cuenca Cathedral 





















Lunch was quite a treat! Perhaps traditional of the area, perhaps not, but you receive an entire bottle of (dear we say- delicious) red wine with the lunch special. After missing several of the buses we had ended to catch back to Madrid we left the restaurant quite giggly and then slept the ENTIRE way back. To our defence it was a warm day! It was a short trip into the beautiful Castille La-Mancha Province and a wonderful visit to a stunning medieval Spanish village.

View towards the old monastery 
Tot Siens, 
John and Kara

Monday, 6 April 2015

Climbing the YELMO, La Pedriza Peak, Madrid, Spain


Parque Regional de la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares

On our last day of the Easter holidays we decided to hike a well known trail called the YELMO (English translation; the helmet). Located on the Guadarrama Mountain Range in the Parque Regional de la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares, Madrid. T he YELMO is the highest peak of La Pedriza mountain. The park is particularly known for all of its unusual rock formations, which also have funky names!  

Whoa - what a view!
Hiking up to the right




















Close up of a wild poppy

Let's go climbing! 




















With the recent daylight savings change it was quite dark and a tad chilly when we woke but we packed our typical Spanish potato sandwiches and a few bottles of water and then boarded the bus at Plaza de Castilla. Just a short 45minute trip took us to the small town of Manzanares El Real where we could walk up to the start of the trail. During all our hikes so far we have gotten a bit lost...... so being the smart cookies that we are, we spent a lot of time the evening before vigorously trying to translate the Spanish instructions on how to find the path and trail head. Today we must have gotten lucky and found the trail relatively easy! Relatively..... 

View of the lake Embalse de Santillana

The hike started off with stunning views of the melting snow capped mountains, the green pine forest and amazing rock formations. Because today isn't an official public holiday in Spain the trail was very quiet and we walked for a couple of hours before seeing other hikers. 

Happy Hikers! 
Our chosen trail was graded 'moderate' but actually fairly intense, up and up, and once we got going there wasn't much shade from the hot sun! 


One of the most exciting parts was coming across a family of wild Spanish Ibex mountain goats. 
They seemed happy to pose for us! We also spotted a Spanish Imperial eagle and black vultures as well as a small rabbit on the mountainside enjoying the spring weather.
Ibex goat family








The hardest part of the trail was definitely the down hill and we both ended up taking a tumble on the loose gravel. 

After our 'climb' we relaxed with a cold yeasty beverage before exploring the super awesome castle that Manzanares El Real has: 'Castillo de los Mendoza' built in 1475. But our legs were pretty buggered!

Tot siens,
John and Kara

'Castillo de los Mendoza'
Hello Mr Ibex! 


Sunday, 5 April 2015

Porto, Northern Portugal


Afternoon view of Porto
After our fantastic stay in Lisbon we ventured North to one of the oldest European centres and the city of Porto to find what other delights Portugal has to offer! 

Beautiful old cathedral. 

Getting to Porto is very easy and we bused from Lisbon with the intention of soaking up the endless countryside but we missed most of the scenery because we clocked out shortly after the bus departed and spent the rest of the ride 'admiring' the back of our eyelids.

Oporto, in English or just Porto in Portuguese is well known for its (drum roll........) port! 

Playing at the waterfront
Although grapes for port are actually grown about 100 kilometres up the Douro Valley the grapes were traditionally brought down river to Porto to cellar where the Atlantic climate is more temperate year round (which only seemed to be in the underground cellars)


Then the aged port was distributed and sold to ships from Great Britain or further afield. And - interesting fact, the city Porto is where the name Portugal originated. 

On arriving into Porto we wandered, fairly aimlessly around the city for a few hours just absorbing everything. Typically buildings were much older and tired looking than Lisbon but the city had a different feel, more harder, more long standing but also more worn. There wasn't anything that made this so, than perhaps the overbearing heat. Everywhere! Just dry hot heat!


Washing on the line
Central City


Buildings along the waterfront


















Our favourite part of Porto was the waterfront that banks the Douro river at the bottom of the city. This is a central hub of eateries mixed with well preserved buildings dating back to the middle ages. From here tiny alleyways branch out alongside the river and its easy to imagine Porto as the small fishing village it once was. 

The alleyways are very dark and smell damp, there is a remarkable temperature drop as you walk between the old stone buildings and here you can almost feel how there would have once been bustling markets and streets full of people as boats came in. 

Eating a franceschina! 

When we started to get hungry, John tried his first franceschina! It was a terribly awful toasted sandwich filled with ham, pork steak and two different chorizo, then wrapped in a thick layer of cheese, sitting in a spicy and meaty sauce. Of course you also get a side of fries to dunk in the left over sauce!  It was so terrible that he had to have another the following day!   






Rua San Miguel
Ferreira Ports




Port tasting in Porto
Port with a Porto view





































For the rest of the trip we were a bit museum'ed and cathedral'ed out so we probably ended up spending quite a bit of our time in the port cellars across the river. Of course this was mostly educational! As with the wine tasting we've undertaken you book in for a 'cellar tour' rather than stand at the bar and taste some port. With not much of a background in port the tours ended up being very interesting and our guides quite humorous! We recommend these tours although you do tend to get thirsty! 
Porto across the bay.... beautiful 
The three days in Porto flew by in a blur of food, sunshine and colour and then all of a sudden we were back in Lisbon catching our flight home! We recommend little Porto as a great place to stop off, the sights are beautiful.

Tot siens,
John and Kara
Back of Porto Cathedral
Porto Cathedral 

Fishing boats on the river
Waiting for lunch... 










Sintra, Portugal

Sintra is a small Portuguese village high on a mountainous hillside, which has been historically associated with Portuguese royalty.
Sintra Village, Sierra de Sintra

Blanketed by large green leafy trees, a forest thick with dark moss, low lying shrub and damp earthy soil underfoot, the Sierra de Sintra landscape is a get-away paradise. 

As a day trip option from Lisbon we took the chance to explore the acclaimed area. 

About an hour on the commuter train we set off on our fairytale adventure early in the morning. It was beautiful and sunny with a cool breeze blowing off the ocean when we left the Portuguese capital city.

The sky was clear and a blue so light that it could be caught in the shimmer of an opal. 

Welcome to Sintra
As the train sped through Lisbon's outer suburbs and residential areas we glimpsed a different way of life. The houses were tired, jammed together along the rails and covered the hills as far as our eyes could see. 

Front patios and exterior walls were covered in worn, discoloured old tiles like something that might have been magnificent in the 1970's but now passed its hay day. When we reached Portela de Sintra it was cold, muggy and very unexpectedly: raining. 

Municipal of Sintra


We could hardly see the hill in front of us as the rolling fog was so dense. We didn't know which way to go and touts took advantage at the situation, trying to steer us towards their tour buses. No one was willing to offer us directions anywhere and we were out of cellphone range. Shivering somewhat on the platform, a young boy insisted the fog won't be clearing today but we made a call to try our luck. We hit the road and headed left. As we moved off, taxis tried to beep us down. It was so cold, how could the weather have changed so dramatically! We didn't have adequate clothing and this certainly didn't feel like how a fairytale should start!

We found it was only about a kilometer from the train to the little village of Sintra and the walk, although cold, was pleasant enough. Had there been less fog we might have seen the village earlier but we caught ourselves walking through a spiralling mist and bush so dense you would have never heard a thing coming. Of course though, there were the taxis who beeped at us insistently. 

View across the village to the Palace
Close up of National Palace

The first thing we saw in the Sintra village was the National Palace. The Palace, restored in the 1940s, is the best preserved medieval Royal Palace in Portugal and has been inhabited more or less continuously from at least the early 15th century to the late 19th century.

Its first historical reference dates from the 10th century although nothing remains from its original design. 




When we first approached the building there were buses of people milling about and we didn't initially realise it was a palace. 

We thought the exterior was bland and the strange dome-shaped roof was a little weird. The current blend of styles in the present palace are mainly the result of the 15th and early 16th centuries design.

With the fog surrounding the landscape it was difficult to know where anything was. 


We found the tourist information centre- which thankfully had a toilet and with some guiding pointers we mapped out a route to the nearby Moorish Castle.

Trying a ginjinha! 
Beautiful little shops in Sintra




















We felt fit and the one hour mountain hike didn't seem all that daunting. So through the village we set off stopping momentarily to try some of the local ginjinha (cherry flavoured) liquor which is served in dark chocolate cups! The small village was small, very small but no other tourists ventured off the main road so we had the alleys to ourselves.

Up the cobbles we go!
Getting into the mountain




















We began our hike up the cobbled backroads admiring the view as the fog lifted momentarily.

Exploring the moor walls
Resting on a tower




















It's believed that the earliest remnants of human occupation were discovered around Sintra. Archeologists have found flints from as far back as our Early Palaeolithic ancestors. Carbon dating places them around the fifth century B.C. meaning humans were there over 7000 years ago!!
There have also been ceramic fragments found locally including many late Chalcolithic vases from the Sintra mountains suggesting that between the fourth and third millennia B.C. the region was occupied by a Neolithic/Chalcolithic settlement.

John climbing on Moor Castle
Trekking up the mountain side slowly we got small glimpses of stone wall. We walked through dense forest and it was peaceful and calming. We noticed large granite boulders in some areas built into the walls.  

The Moor Castle, a large fortification, was built in the 8th and 9th century during the period of Muslim Iberia rule. In 1031 after the invasion from the Almoravid dynasty (also Muslim rulers coming up from Africa) the then King offered the castle to Christian King Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile in order to build alliance and protection. Nevertheless the castle was still lost to the Almoravids. 

Finally defeated in 1147 the castle was taken back and in Christian control but then only used on and off for the next 500 years. The massive Lisbon earthquake of 1755 caused considerable damage to the castle and it began to fall into ruins. 
Parts of the ruins
Fog, fog, fog! 




















After purchasing our entry tickets, we proceeded to climb around the fortified ruins. There were high towers, where we could imagine guards standing, and cascading drops off the mountain side where they might have thrown their prisoners to a gruesome death. 

Playing in the fortress
Peaking through the tunnels



















So much fog! 
Add caption
Panoramic of Sintra and Portugal

Inside the Moor Castle
Views of the Castle walls



















The view towards Palacio da Pena

Although there are little remains of any palace rooms, the Moorish castle is enormous and it's evident to see that at one time it would have been well protected.

Perched high above Sintra town with views all the way to the ocean, enemies would never have been able to approach undetected. 

We continued to explore and found within the walls an underground animal holding pit, food shelters and wells. 

We manoeuvred higher, as high as we could go. From there we could just make out the Palácio da Pena. 
Hiding on the castle walls


Shrouded in white cloud, it stood defiantly on the hillside. 

The palace resembles a strong rocky fortress, something that could have been ripped out of a Disney movie. With pastel colours and extravagant architecture the palace was merely a vacation home. 






Getting lost in the bush!
Beautiful wildflowers





















We took a small trail that was engorged with wildflowers and views to a river down below, eventually arriving at Palácio da Pena. The palace's history started in the Middle Ages when a little hilltop chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena was built. In 1493, King John II of Portugal made a pilgrimage to the site.
Pena Palace (photo taken from santotoursportugal.com)
His successor was also very fond of the sanctuary, and ordered the construction of a monastery on the site. For centuries Pena remained a small, quiet place for meditation. Disaster stuck however during the 1755 earthquakes which destroyed the Moor Castle and decimated the monastery. For many decades the ruins lay untouched. In 1838, King Ferdinand II decided to acquire the old monastery, all of the surrounding lands, the nearby Moor Castle and a few other estates in the area.

Lunchtime!

King Ferdinand set about transforming the remains of the monastery into a palace that would serve as a summer residence and playground for the Portuguese royal family. This included tidying up the ruins of the Moor Castle too. 

By now though we were famished, and looking at the queues of tourists waiting to get tickets we made the call to head back down the mountain. Unfortunately we missed the castle and had we been in a better state of mind would have probably really enjoyed it! The exterior of the castle with all its colours is meant to be absolutely stunning. Check out this photo taken of the palace above!

Returning back into the romantic little town, we quickly scoured the many restaurants which seemed to cater for tourists at ridiculous tourist prices! We quickly decided upon a nice Italian place that was within our budget. 

Catch you later Sintra
Finally sitting down drinking our red wine, the sun came out! Around us the small collection of painted homes and tiled cottages glistened. It was enchanting and we started to feel like maybe this was a fairytale after all. 

Old mansions on the hillside
Ancient medieval baths




















We walked slowly back to the train station admiring the view that we had missed earlier. We found it interesting how the weather had changed and we enjoyed our hike up Sintra.


Tot siens, 
John and Kara