Parador Chinchon;Parador Cuenca Spain

Today I shall begin a fourth Spanish itinerary, starting out in Madrid, heading east to the Mediterrranean, then south, making a big loop through Andalucia and north again back to Madrid. This is a trip for which you should allow yourself plenty of time; two weeks would be an absolute minimum and three would be preferable. While perhaps not by American standards, Spain is nevertheless a big country and there is a lot to see wherever one goes.

Parador of Chinchon. Chinchon is less than half an hour's drive on uncrowded secondary roads from Madrid's Barajas airport and for that reason reccomends itself for either a first or a last night's stay in Spain. The town is quite small but does have an imposing main square of irregular shape, surrounded by half timbered houses with typical glassed-in Castilian balconies from which the local young ladies could observe their swains strolling in the square below in the evenings. There are arcades and, as in Vic, the square doubles as a bull ring in the summer. The parador, a seventeenth century convent, is built in the Spanish Renaissance style. Belying the building's origins, the rooms are spacious but a word of caution -- parking is at a premium and there's no elevator, so this is not suitable for handicapped guests. There's an outdoor pool. I'd recommend a visit to the nearby town of Aranjuez with it's seventeenth century royal palace which has magnificent gardens in the French style. Of interest is the fact that the revolt against Napoleon's usurpation of the Crown of Spain, that turned into the Spanish War of Independence in which Wellington forged his reputation, began here in 1808.

Parador of Cuenca. The town is in the eastern part of La Mancha and various Don Quixote artifacts, almost without exception kitsch, can be purchased in its numerous souvenir shops. By far the most salient feature of the place is provided by the famous casas colgadas, the hanging houses, which cling to the sides of a cliff like so many hornet's nests. One's first reaction to them is that surely they must come tumbling down at any moment, but they don't. The parador, a sixteenth century convent, is situated below these so that one has a great view of them from one's room. In keeping with the building's origins, the prevailing atmosphere is one of a certain austerity, although, fortunately, no attempt was made to keep the bedrooms at their original sizes. The comedor has been reconstructed to resemble its original aspect in every particular, not omitting the niche from which a postulant used to read Holy Scripture to the nuns whilst they dined. There's an outdoor pool and a tennis court. The nearby Sierra da Cuenca provides an opportunity for exploring a genuinely wild and remote region; jeep tours can be booked at the parador.