Taking the Road Less Travelled to the Hanging Houses of Cuenca, Spain

When planning our three some week venture into Spain, I had pretty much decided that Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Granada, and Barcelona were the musts, but all the while, even though it was off path, a journey to Cuenca persistently pushed its way back into my travel plan.  I do not regret that this off-guidebook destination... dismissed by some of the major savants of travel as too far from the main sightseeing priorities.. clung steadfast to our itinerary.


I researched the journey to Cuenca ad nauseum.. concerned that it might take our auto-based trip off on desolate roads far from civilization -- yeah yeah, I know -- using google earth et al to explore the terrain long before our rental car began the five-hour trip through the rugged, rusty-colored land of central Spain from Granada to Cuenca. No matter,  I just had to see the houses that had clung desparately to the edge of a cliff for over 500 years.


Cuenca like much of Spain retains the mysterious blend of Moorish and Christian stemming from its history of conquests.   When the Moors conquered Spain they spotted a limestone ridge between the Jucar and Huecar rivers and built a fortress-town from which to control the vast area known as the Kura de Kunka ), in the center of the caliphate of Córdoba -- in Spanish, Cuenca was born.  In the era of the crusades (12th century), a Christian town was built over the Moorish one spreading  down from the crest of the hill.  As the population expanded, the fortified upper town became dominated by Cuenca's churches and convents. The famous World Heritage Casas Colgados (Hanging Houses) are but a few remaining of hundreds of cliff-hugging dwellings built in the 15th century. These were originally part of a palace that later served as the city's town hall. 

Our plan with respect to Cuenca, in addition to seeing the famous houses, was to tick off another goal of the trip - to stay at many of the paradores of Spain ( a topic for another post).  So our journey after rolling through the oddly manicured lands immediately outside of Cuenca's more modern section took up us the winding road to the Parador of Cuenca.  This Parador noted as one of the best in Spain is in the former convent of San Pablo overlooking the Hoz del Huecar gorge with its sheer walls and luxuriant vegetation. The open courtyard, cloistered hallway that surrounds it, former chapel (obviously identified because of the religious paintings) now the hotel bar all added to the historic charm of the hotel.  While accomodations were modest, they were pleasant and comfortable enough, and we loved lingering at the tiny bar sipping Spanish wine with tapas as we chatted with the bartender and gazing at the overwhelming views of the ancient casas clinging precipitously to the edge of a natural wonder. 


While seeing first hand this amazing World Heritage site is enough of a reason to visit Cuenca, you can also wander into the old town of Cuenca (if you stay at the Parador -- you can get there across the iron-fortified stone bridge that crosses the gorge or take the road and get there by car.)  Once across the gorge you can visit the Muiseo de Arte Abstracto housed in one of the casas.  For the non-vertically challenged there is also a restaurant, Meson Casas Colgadas, next to the museum with vistas of the gorge.

Getting there: A fairly new AVE high-speed rail train connetcs Madrid – Atocha station and Cuenca – Fernando Zobel station, providing travellers with frequent  everyday accessibilit, reducing the journey to only 50 minutes. RENFE also operates a non high-speed service that gets to Cuenca  in 3 hours from Madrid. Auto Res, a bus operator, links Madrid to Cuenca with a 2 hour or 2:30 hour trip duration. The A-40 motorway, connects the city with the A-3 at Tarancon, 82 km away from Madrid.

A Place in Another Time and Space -- A Night in a Real Castle -- The Schloss Bensberg overlooking Cologne, Germany

During our stay in Germany I wanted to spend one night in a real castle.  Not one of those cold and drafty kind -- a castle that had been brought up to date so that you really could feel like royalty.   Possibly you should save such experiences for mid-trip, but I knew we would be arriving fairly early in Dusseldorf  and would be very tired from the over night flight, so having a comfortable place to stay even if we could not immediately check in was paramount.

Schloss Bensberg in Bergishch Gladbach is a baroque structure that looms over Bensberg and Cologne pronouncing its importance to the surrounding region.  It was built for a prince who never got to live there.  Versailles and Windsor Castle served as models for Prince-Elector Johann Wilhem II (Jan Wellem) in building his private retreat on a hillside with magnificent views of Cologne with the help of the Italian architect count Matteo d'Alberti over 300 years ago (between 1700-1716).  When Wellem died in 1716, his widow left the building unfinished.  Over the years it was used as a military hospital, boarding school and refugee camp  ultimately falling into disrepair until in 1997, an insurance company financed a magnificent renovation to turn Schloss Bensberg into a modern day Versailles for guests from around the world.



From the winding streets below, we first caught sight of the castle, overlooking the town and city below. The white and silver structure glistened in the early rays of the sun as we rolled our rental car through the imposing gate and up the paved driveway past stone entry buildings, a regiment of carefully aligned trees, gardens burning with color and a verdant lawn that ran straight up to the colonnade at the front of the castle.   With its multiple turrets, endless rows of huge ornate windows and elaborate entrance, the castle in front of us was much grander than any picture could have led us to expect.

We were dead tired on arrival and therefore overwhelmed with gratefulness when we were quickly ushered into the elegant lobby with our car and luggage whisked away with silent grace.   More thrilled was I when the receptionist promised to have our room ready as soon as possible, and in the mean time thought we might like some breakfast and guided us through the hotel under arched white ceilings, past gorgeous marble and plaster statuary, huge paintings, salons with Renaissance-style murals and other signals that we were indeed in a palatial space.

The breakfast buffet heaped with smoked meat and fish selections, eggs, a wide variety of local and imported cheese, breakfast meats, pastries, fruit and more flowed into the corridor in front of a high-ceiling dining room with additional buffet items, breads, teas and coffee.  We were led to a window table overlooking the grand courtyard and lawn below and promptly served coffee in delicate white cups over white linen.   Ahh!

After a relaxing hour or so, we were escorted to our room overlooking the Castle lawn, the small town with its grand church and in the distance below Cologne and the spires of its magnificent Cathedral.  Cologne was only a short car ride away -- about 20 minutes or so, easy to visit from the Schloss.   After a rest we did a quick tour of Cologne and came back to the Schoss for dinner.    

Vendome, the 3-star chef Joachim Wissler's Restauant,  was fully reserved and I hadn't booked in advance.  I had thought when booking the trip that as we would be overtired from the overnight flight, our first night in Germany might not be the best choice for a splurge dinner.  Especially one that might involve up to six hours and many, many courses (Check out Andy Hayler's review)  Nonetheless, we did peak in the dining room and roam through the beautiful gardens in front the restaurant, which is situated in a stone building on the grounds of the Schloss.

The meal we did have at the Italian restaurant, Trattoria Enoteca, while not a Michelin Three Star like Vendome, was spectacular in its own right.  Following an argula and dandelion salad topped with pine nuts and Parmiggiano Reggiano, I chose the fried sturgeon with a lemon caper sauce arranged on a plate with aspargus and tiny potatoes.  I saw wonderful pasta dishes float by as well as desserts and cheese plates.  If this was second choice for a restaurant at the Castle, I can only imagine how extraterrestrial Vendome is.

Schloss Bensberg also has a world-class spa known for its lighted ceilings (it was closed the day we were there unfortunately), a cozy lobby bar and elegant, club-style bar, but, moreover, staying here is experential -- a night out of time and place -- in an historic yet comfortably modern space that gives you that feeling of specialness that you want to get at least once in awhile in your travels. 

St Nicholas Church in Bensberg

Resources: 

Germany (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Lonely Planet Germany (Country Travel Guide)

Rick Steves' Germany 2011 with map

Frommer's Germany 2011 (Frommer's Complete Guides)

The Algonquin - New York's Historic Grand Dame and First Hotel to Welcome Solo Women Travelers

On an afternoon in 1919 Edna Ferber, the novelist, arrived at the Algonquin Hotel in a new suit not unlike the one composer Noel Coward was wearing that day. "You look almost like a man," Noel said to her, "So do you," Ferber quickly retorted.

That story, among the many that tumble through the history of what is claimed to be New York's oldest operating hotel, makes for part of a legend that continues to draw bibliophiles, art and history lovers, and connoisseurs who know what makes life good.

Among the many gems that dot the hotel's quirky past include the follow factoids:

• William Faulkner wrote his 1950 Nobel Prize speech in a suite there


• The Oak Room in the Algonquin launched the careers of Harry Connick, Jr, Diana Krall, Andrea Marcovicci, Michael Finestein and many others


• Lerner and Lowe are said to have written My Fair Lady in Lerner's suite at the Algonquin


• Harold Ross secured funding for the New Yorker Magazine at the hotel from a fellow poker player


• Contrary to popular myth, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and their fellow Round Table members never drank at the Round Table because it was Prohibition


• The Algonquin is the home of the $10,000 martini. It comes with a piece of ice -- a diamond from the in-house jeweler


• The Algonquin was the first leading New York hotel to welcome ladies traveling alone

The Algonquin, opened its Beaux- Arts-inspired main structure in 1902, three-years later adding a cafe and restaurant through a conversion of the nineteenth century stable next door. Throughout its history, it has remained a place to gather, starting with the group that gathered there first and immortalized themselves and the Hotel, the "Round Table, " headed up by regulars Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Robert E. Sherwood. The marketing genius behind molding a hotel into more than a building with rooms was Frank Case, who in 1919 treated a group of young, low-paid, albeit talented writers to free celery and popovers and provided them with their own table and waiter, guaranteeing their daily return. An experiential enterprise was born. These influential people exchanged ideas and gossip that found its way into the New York papers of the day and created a cache that helped draw renowned personalities from throughout the world to the hotel's rooms and dining facilities for years to come.

The Rose Room, which was the hotel's original main dining room and the restaurant where the original Round Table met was lost to lobby expansion in 1998 during a major renovation of the hotel. But the Round Table remains as the Round Table Restaurant at the rear of the lobby of the hotel. Overlooking the Table today is the "Vicious Circle," a 2002 painting of the group who brought the Algonquin it's landmark status.

There are tours of the hotel available through Algonquin Walking Tours or just pass through by yourself, and for a real treat have lunch with the "Vicious Circle" at the Round Table. And just maybe you'll get a glimpse of the hotel's special guest -- the Algonquin Cat. From the 1930s, one furry traveler has been chosen for this unique position. Female cats have been named Matilda , males, Hamlet, a name insisted upon for the first resident feline by John Barrymore.

Seduced by An Enchanting Hotel Above the Hills of Florence -- Villa San Michele

It was a hot Sunday in Florence...very hot... but high above in the hills of Fiesole a pleasant breeze blew and birds tweeted incredibly entrancing songs. I had decided to visit Fiesole on my next trip to Florence after having read "Loving Frank," the fictionalized story about Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. The descriptions of Fiesole and its appeal to Lloyd Wright and Cheney drew me there.

Some travel advisors say "skip it"...well perhaps if you only have a very short time in Florence. But for me, it would have been a mistake not to have seen this magnificent view and experienced for a few hours what attracted people like Lloyd Wright, Gertrude Stein, and other artistic people here. For afterall, you don't go to Fiesole for Fiesole, you go to see Florence spread before you in all its magnificance.

The tourbooks advise that one of the best places to enjoy the view from Fiesole is the small Parco della Rimembranza on Via di San Francesco, public gardens with benches, shady trees and a panoramic view. But I also wanted to visit the well-touted Villa San Michele situated on the site of a monastery founded in the early 15th century.

So we took a taxi from Florence and stopped by the Villa for lunch to sip cokes and nibble on lovely sandwiches on the terrace of one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever visited. The present building with its facade attributed to Michelangelo dates from 1600 when it was enlarged and renovated by Giovanni di Bartolommeo Davanzati. The property was owned by the Franciscan monks until 1818, when Napoleon dissolved monastic orders returning the Villa to secular use. One can imagine the monks walking the loggia of the then monastery and wandering through the now public rooms of the hotel. Inside the hotel, antique chairs, altars, stone walls, frescos and other religious artifacts all come together to create a sense of spiritual retreat somewhat at odds yet strangely compatible with the current purpose.

One of the public rooms that is used now as a lounge and informal dining space off the interior restaurant was the refectory of the old monastery. A magnificent fresco, completed in 1642, and later restored by Orient-Express Hotels, the current owner of the hotel, adorns the back wall in a three-part alcove. This is only one of the many interesting public spaces where you can sit quietly and read or write (as I noticed several hotel guests were doing.)

The guests rooms are either in the main building of the old monestary or in the new space blended into the setting in the garden area. There are also junior suites on the hillside between the garden and the pool and in the old Limonaia. The most coveted room I was told is the one situated in the former chapel with perhaps some of the most magnificent views.

I climbed up the hill near the small 17th century building to take some photos and get a glimpse of the view the hotel guest in the chapel might have. Ah I thought, some day I will stay here. From here I truly knew why Mamah Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright loved Fiesole so much.

Some tweeps I followed for Florence:

www.twitter.com/toscanamia -- for Italian Cooking Lessons in Florence

www.twitter.com/tuscanyvillas -- for Information on Florence

www.twitter.com/aroadretraveled for Information on Florence

www.twitter.com/TuscanyTourism

Another interesting blog article about Villa San Michelle.

Lunch with a View -- Visiting the Cipriani Hotel

Directly across the water from the Piazza San Marco in Venice on Isola della Giudecca, the Cipriani sits in its all its contrapuntal splendor of old and new. Contemporary amenities, including spa, red-clay tennis court, outdoor heated pool and modern accommodations have been seamlessly integrated into the remnants of a 16th century cloister. Reading the reviews of the hotel from recent visitors provide a schizophrenic picture...




Some complaint about the price, of course, in today's value conscious world, some have issues with a few rooms needing remodeling, but, then there are the raves about the service, the peace and tranquility, and, of course, the views. We didn't stay the night, but the afternoon was lovely, though expensive. Worth it, yes. But I went particularly to see the view and to experience the world the owner of Harry's Bar was trying to create...an oasis of peace and privacy within minutes and site of perhaps the most famous, photographed and beloved squares in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.


I never tire of arriving anywhere by boat, it always seems special. But arriving on an island in the Hotel Cipriani's launch is more than special, it is to enter for a moment the world of the privledged. It is also to enter the place that Harry created....and remarkably just as he envisioned, the first thing that is evident especially after leaving the hustle and bustle of St. Mark's Square is the quiet serernity.





After a morning of museums and shopping in Venice, wandering through Cipriani's garden and along the waterfront near the hotel was indescribably pleasant. And sipping prosecco on the flower-adorned terrace of the Cipriani's lovely restaurant, sheer bliss.

Brown Palace Hotel -- a Presidential Experience in Denver

My first solo hotel stay as a working young adult was at an historic hotel --Brown's in London. This marvelous hotel set the bar for what I would expect from accommodations far higher than what could reasonably be required for  a business hotel. Brown's was not just a hotel -- it was an experience, a time tunnel back to another more gracious era. From that all too brief stay, I learned to look for more from each and every hotel encounter from the little motel on the prairie, to the B&B by the sea, to the convention hotel in Chicago, to the grand hotel in Paris or Monaco. There had to be something out of the ordinary--whether it was a journey back to another time, a trip into exciting new living features that weren't yet the standard for ordinary homes, a full immersion into the culture of the city or town I was visiting, or even just something quirky that would give me a story to tell.


Tall order, but having the bellman tell me as he pushed our luggage towards reception that every President with the exception of Coolidge from Theodore Roosevelt through to George W. Bush had stayed in the hotel got my attention. Then as we walked into the lobby of the Brown Palace (no relation to Brown's in London) as high tea was being served in the atrium and the sounds of 30s style piano music wafted through the air, my eyes swept upward capturing almost instantaneously the cast-iron balconies, stained glass ceiling, huge American Flag, and remnants of a massive fireplace.  It was then that I felt that tumbling back in time sense that only an assiduously maintained historic hotel can deliver.  I knew this was going to be an experience.

Competing now with a number of stylish, boutique hotels that have opened in recent years in Denver, the Brown Palace still manages to set a contemporary standard (including an excellent spa) while maintaining it's elegant and historic charm.   From its dramatic eight-story atrium lobby adorned with Mexican onyx to clubby restaurants and quaint, comfortable bars to its high ceiling guest rooms with attractively remodeled bathrooms, lovely furnishings and finishes, and slanted windows that let the sun stream in, the Brown Palace exceeds expectations.

While gradually modernizing, the Brown Palace has retained the feel of an historic Denver and American West. The triangular Colorado red granite and sandstone building has been continuously operational since opening in late in the 19th century.   And as you walk into Churchill's Bar, opened in 1996, you can easily imagine turn-of-the-century gentlemen drawing on their cigars while discussing the politics and business of the day in such an establishment. And more of that somewhere-in-time feeling has been created by the historic artifacts and paintings that adorn the public rooms. The windows near the entrance to the Palace Arms and Churchill Bar, for instance, contain French military band figures carved by a French doll maker imprisoned during the Napoleonic wars. Replicas of flags prominent during the exploration of the American continent and dueling pistols said to have belonged to Napoleon can be observed while dining in the Palace Arms Restaurant. An incredible painting, "The Sultan's Dream, a part of the hotel since it's opening in 1892, can be viewed in the Churchill Bar. Touches throughout like an antique black phone, an historic postal box, and changing displays of memorabilia such as old guest registers, menus and brochures in the entry lobby further sustain the historic character and feel of this grand old hotel.  

And beyond the building, service is as gracious as you would expect from a hotel that has catered to Presidents and other world dignitaries.  If Mr. Obama chooses to keep their record of Presidential stays going, I am sure the Brown Palace will not disappoint.

And just to demonstrate how an older lady can keep up with the times, there is a tweeter for the hotel, with whom I made the arrangements for my stay:  BrownPalace. After I tweeted my compliments, BrownPalace tweeted: @thetraveltweet So glad to see you enjoyed your time here. Hope to welcome you back. Please let us know if you need anything in the future!  To be sure @BrownPalace thetraveltweet will be back.  

I love Twitter.