Toledo - Cuenca via Madrid Atocha and Chamartin

Time to leave Toledo.  I liked it and would recommend it as a place to stay for three nights and have two full days exploring it.  Seeing all the sights lit up at night is magical!

We walked the 20 min downhill from our apartment in the old town to the beautiful old daily station in the new part of Toledo.  There was a bit of a queue for security but passed quick.  We got the high speed electric Renfe train to Madrid Atocha.  The main rail hub of Madrid.  There is a screen in each coach showing the speed and our fastest was 187 mph!  Half an hour journey and then got the overground train to Chamartin, one of the other big train hubs in Madrid.  We had an hour between trains which was plenty time.  

Another Renfe electric train which are superb, big seats with massive trays and extremely clean toilets!  The station at Cuenca is a wee bit outside the station , which looks pretty new.  There was a huge car park and bus stops and we got the bus to our apartment in the Cuenca old town.  It took around 35 mins as it made 15 stops and the end of the line was where we got off in Playa Mayor, where this magnificent cathedral is.  We were met by Ruben who took us round to the apartment just a two minUte walk.  

We unpacked and then headed out for a walk.  What an amazing place - it’s famous for its hanging houses - built into the cliffs overlooking a huge gorge with stunning rock formations.  Walked over the San Pablo bridge to the other side of the gorge - hundreds of feet up with a road below.  The bridge is metal and moves with not very high sides!  I had to walk in the middle and not look down and I worried about children falling off it through the bars.  Imagine your kids going out to play and going anywhere near this.  Maybe it’s an age thing going on getting feart of imaginings in the mind.  Anyway, someone said this bridge featured in a James Bond film, I have no idea as I haven’t watched any since Sean left them.

We walked round the old streets and went on the bus to the old town to a supermarket as there aren’t any in the old town.  We got something for the tea there as all the playa restaurants sold the same thing and I wasn’t inspired .  We got pastries, garlic potato salad, bread, a rice dish and yogurt and blueberries, oh and a packet of crisps!

The bus was mobbed going back uphill.  There was a big singsong on the bus - someone’s birthday.  Great fun.

We had our tea and had another wander in a different direction.  Great place to explore!

Oh, and so pleased not to be in the U.K. for that absolute obscene waste of money Coronation that was taking place for old Carlos!  And STFU those that bleat ‘ohhhh they bring so much in tourism’. Educate yourselves you subservient fools!!  Stop worshipping these inbreds and stick your Union Jack bunting up your jacksie LOL.   I do like a royalist rant.  Just a short one this time….

Oh and before I sign off a question I ask, why didn’t he pay for it himself ?