I am a bit nostalgic not just today mind you, but on a clear sky and 11C or about 50F in my house of Pluvigner ,in my beautiful Morbihan dept 56 of my lovely Bretagne and in my belle France, I need to update this older post, I was very lucky to have met and married a lovely French women, name Martine after convincing her to move with me to Ormond Beach Fl USA,(see posts) years later she convince me to come to France and we end up after Versailles, here purchasing a house near City center. All went perfect, happiest time of my life. I convince her to vacation in my dear Spain, and she went along nicely even loving it, We came to Las Majadas as our base in a mountain house 1400 meters up,and repeat repeat it was great and the owners were very nice folks, The bad luck have it that I lost her due to pancreatic cancer last April 30th 2018. My hopes were dashed and a new life is slowly coming together, never full really, However, the memories ,the souvenirs, the joys of the past with my dear late wife Martine will always be there intact. I like to bring back our magnificent Summer vacations, we had in Las Majadas, Serrania de Cuenca, Province of Cuenca in the Castilla La Mancha autonomous community , and the Kingdom of Spain. I have several entries on the area in my blog. Hope you enjoy reading it as I telling the world about it,
We came here in 2016 and 2017 , we love it!!! We found the house by chance in rural properties of Spain, and it was a hit. We quickly always decide it must be Spain again !!!Which I did not mind at all,,, There, are other places in Europe but when it comes to decision time, it seems we have a magnet on Spain, and a lot of blood roots!!!. We skip the year 2018, we did not go as was too sad for me and the boys to go back. We return to Madrid in 2019 but not the strenght to passed by Las Majadas then, We are still looking forward to go back even briefly for the memories forever.
We always sit around the kitchen table and decide where to go in our long Summer vacations , but at the end we came back to the same place as always with little exceptions over the years. The house we always rented the same a wonderfully roomy cool and in the center of the town; the owners are wonderful human being very laid back country folks who enjoyed talking and sharing stories. This is the Casa Pitu, (see post) Calle Anastacio Lasso in Las Majadas , near the clock tower which houses the pharmacy and library , Up at 1400 meters (about 4593 feet) and 36 km (about 22 miles) from the Unesco World Heritage site of the city of Cuenca.
The town of Las Majadas is very friendly and easy to walk, with great pathways into the mountains for the courageous runner/walker/hiker is a paradise. We did the run down and up the mountain with great views to do our shopping by Cuenca. Sad to hear the bakery has close down and now bread is deliver after 10h at the local school. In all, it was a great place to be at. We are always remembering and réminiscences of times past where we had so much family joy here. It will be with me for the rest of my life. There are several posts on the Las Majadas/Cuenca area , sorry if it is repeated, I will never be tired of writing about it in my blog. From our first visit there in 2016, we had the feeling it was our best vacation ever ,not only because the location was great, the house fanstastic with all the trimming ,and the price right, but the host Luis and Maria Isabel were fantastic beyond the call of duty to make our stay a wonderful one full of great memories and even friendship. You will do well to rent from them in the future as we will definitively look forward to another opportunity, eventually.
Let me tell you as briefly as possible the way we did the run by car, say starting from our rest stop in Pau , We continue south towards Gan along the N 134, follow Laruns on the D 934 into the mountains looking for the col du Portalet mountain pass wonderful views real driving pleasure and into Spain on the N260 to Huesca to take the N330 into the wonderful road A23 to Zaragoza here take the beltway of the city, the Z-40 direction Madrid ,but get off on exit 28A to Teruel/Cariñera and then exit 176 into the N 211 direction Montalban/Caminreal/Alcaniz. Near the town of Caminreal take left on the N 234 ,and near Monreal del Campo continue on avenue de Madrid still on the N 211 passing by nice Molina de Aragon (see post) to connect with the CM 210 that becomes the CM 2106 into the Serrania de Cuenca mountains and our home at Las Majadas !!!
And this is how we rode our way back to France: This time we headed first to Guadalajara , passing by one special town of Calatayud (see post). This is the town I stopped with my then girlfriend for gas and something to eat at the next door restaurant/hotel that had a wedding going on ! appropiate it seems. We sat in the middle of the restaurant with the wedding party on one side and always remembered by us. At the end of town ,we link up with the A2 direction Zaragoza that we bypass on the beltway road Z 40. We took the A 23 direction Huesca where we link up with the N 330 direction Jaca passing by Sabiñanigo. We continue on the N 330 direction France and the Somport pass tunnel. This was memorable too as when I first started traveling by car between Spain and France there was no tunnel but had to go on first gear with a VW Golf (owned by my girlfriend later wife Martine) up the Pyrénées mountains over the Col de Somport mountain. Here passing Castiello de Jaca, and then Vilanua ,(see post) a great memory as usually we had stayed at the Faus Hutte mountain hotel here,now it is call Lacasa. We remember arriving very late like 10PM or 22h and the hotel owners opened up the restaurant to give us something to eat and stayed for the night before continuing on to France !!! Memories forever indeed.
The official Casa Pitu rental mountain house :http://www.casapitu.es/
The province of Cuenca on Las Majadas : https://www.dipucuenca.es/municipios1/-/asset_publisher/klZin00s9LhH/content/id/471015
The Castilla La Mancha autonomous community on Las Majadas:http://en.www.turismocastillalamancha.es/patrimonio/las-majadas-69831/
The Guia Repsol (sort of the Michelin of Spain) on Las Majadas :https://www.guiarepsol.com/es/fichas/localidad/las-majadas-3966/
There you go folks, a bit sad for me but a wonderful time to remember forever, I have continue to travel and write in my blog ,it soothes everything and is doing me so, writing this blog helps a lot. Las Majadas will be forever in my mind. Again, memories forever !!! I thank you for reading me since November 26 2010, it is appreciated.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 