Cuenca. Part 1.

My trip starts early in the morning, i had planned to get up by 7, but my body already was up at 6, so i decided to do a early start. I had already packed my stuff, checked out the car and filled the tank, so i was ready for the 6 hour trip to Cuenca. Nothing really interesting in the trip, apart from the fact that "Hikari No Senritsu" decided to pop up in the radio CD just when i was crossing the Cuenca landmark signal (Seriously), at that moment the landscape couldn´t be more similar to the one seen in the train in the first episode of SnW. It was at that moment when i started to realize that i was in for some fun days.

After checking in the hotel, and having a meal as it was already mid day, i started my walk into Cuenca. I decided to drive to the top of the city, because there´s a big free parking there where i could forget about the car. I´ll will be pointing out some random thinking in the walkthrough, but i didn´t really like the fact that you can drive all across the old part of Cuenca, normally most of Spanish cities have limited the traffic on the old part to only residents or limited to some hours during the day, but in this case there is a relatively high level of cars going up and down during the day, there was even some public buses to take you up and down the path, if you are lazy.

Well, off with the randomness and starting with the interesting stuff. On the top of Cuenca, there are some rock ravines, and you can watch this spectacular view of the city from them.

Even if we didn´t get this exact shot in the series, i think most of the stuff in this picture needs no presentation for anyone who has seen SnW: The Parador of Cuenca, the San Pablo bridge, Las Casas Colgadas, and the Torre de Mangana in the right side of the picture.

Here´s a closer look at the Parador from behind, you can´t really see it in this picture, but Cuenca is built quite tall, there´s quite a height from the Parador to the road on top of it.

 General look of the city, seriously high! If you didn´t know, cities were built like this for defensive purposes, you can imagine how trying to conquer this City was a quite hard task...

Below where i took this picture, there was this ruined building located. I suspected that it could be the one thet Krauss and Kureha get stuck in episode 10, but the shot doesn´t give a clue and i couldn´t find a way down there, so it´s just a theory...

Let´s go to the city. This are the ruins of the castle of Cuenca, a part of them is still intact, and you can actually climb to the top, again getting great views of Cuenca, and the "HOZ DEL RIO JUCAR", which are the 2 rivers that surround Cuenca (Jucar and Huecar).

And here it is the castle from the other side. When you cross this, it feel like the exit door of the city. You may remember this spot from episode 1 when Kanata goes looking for Rio´s bell. Let me tell you that the path she takes makes sense, because the rocks that i took the first shots from, are the actual ones Kanata goes in, and the moment people goes searching for her, they are quite close to where she has fallen, but more of that later...

We are at the "Plaza de Mangana". Looking up, this shot should be familiar from episode 1 too. There are a couple of shots on this spot that i will show you now.

At this point there is the main street, and some smaller streets that take us down the city. Kanata walks down those stairs in episode 1, and Noel drives though here in episode 4.

For those who followed the "speculah" threads, you may remember the "escudo heraldico" that was included in one of the charts. Well, the actual location of it is the building on the left of the picture, the one with the "FAP" signal (OMG...), which is actually used as an art center, and there are actually 3 of those escudos, 2 on the front, and one lower on the left wall.

Walking down this side street takes us to some spots used in the series, first one are this stairs, where Naomi and Yumina meet up in episode 11 (Once again, excuse the poor shots...). This street was closed because it was being repaved, and the workers started yelling at me when i walked in camera in hand, i can´t blame them but i wanted that shot...

 If we keep going down (and taking another path in my case...), we arrive at one of my favourite places in Cuenca, partially because i didn´t really expect it, but mostly because the great significance that gets in the series, see if you can guess what it is...