Spain 2025: Cuenca & Madrid

On our way to Madrid we stopped in Cuenca to see the "Hanging Houses" and to visit the Enchanted City, an area with impressive large stone formations.

The rock formations of the Enchanted City are made of karst (limestone and dolomite). Rain falling on the original limestone plateau wore down the porous limestone, leaving behind the more resistant dolomite. Because the dolomite was not distributed evenly in the original rock, the result was the eroded named shapes.  Below, clockwise from top left:

Los Barcos / the ships, La cara del hombre / The man's face, another  barco / ship, and Tormo Alto / High Tormo (sorry, I have no idea what that really means).

A tunnel, Puente / Bridge, La foca / The seal, El mar de piedra / The stone sea, and Convento ('Convent')

We also wanted to compare the "Hanging Houses" (houses built down the clifside) here with those we had seen in Cuenca, Ecuador. We would give a big plus to the Canyon in Spain but found the Houses in Ecuador more interesting,

Before continuing to Madrid we had an excellent lunch at Grotte del Huécar, artichoke, foie disguised as an orange mushroom, and a superb whole fish. 

Our plan had us stopping in Madrid to take another look at the big 3 art museums, the Prado, Thyssen & Reina Sofia.

Thyssen is our favorite of the three museums. Some of the pieces we enjoyed there are: (Clockwise from top left): 

• New York City (unfinished) - Piet Mondrian
• The Grey House - Marc Chagall
• Plaza San Marco - Canaletto
• Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain - Camille Pissarro

• The Massacre of the Innocents - Lucas van Valckenborch I (probably)
• Young Knight in a Landscape - Camille Pissarro
• Les Vessenots in Auvers 1890 - Vincent van Gogh
• Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green) - Edgar Degas

We enjoyed works at the Prado, but unfortunately no photos are allowed. Pat especially enjoyed Hieronymus Bosch's surrealist "The Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych". Check out the preceding link or better yet search out a YouTube video. I listened to one that explains in wonderful detail what's going on in the 3 pieces of the Triptych and how they progress from the innocence of the Garden of Eden, through humanity succumbing to earthly temptations, and finally to the torments of Hell.

Our Reina Sofia visit started in the courtyard with pieces by Calder and Miró. (top 2 photos below)

Inside we checked notable works including:

• Guernica by Pablo Picasso. Created in 1937 it was commissioned to depict the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. (We visited Guernica earlier. For more detais, see Spain 2025: Getxo
• The Grand Masturbator - a surrealist piece by Dalí. It's a. complicated story. We leave it to you to research further if interested.
• Some rather large contemporary installations.

We connected with Stacy (another wedding attendee) at our hotel. We decided to take a walk through the neighborhood and have tapas at La Castaña where we also enjoyed enjoyed a nice Ribera del Duero.

Next we are off to Toledo and the wedding!!!