Town-hopping in central Spain

On my way to Madrid I decided to stop by a few interesting towns along the way.

My first stop was Teruel...

...just in time for the Annual Teruel Ham Festival (seriously) so of course I took advantage of the free samples!

They even had ham-flavoured chips. Yummy.

Teruel is an old-looking town that appears to be trying to reinvent itself as a tourist destination, featuring lots of spectacular mudejar (islamic influenced) architecture...

But the noticeable lack of foreign tourists made me think that the town appears to attract mainly locals interested in the Ham Festival. And can you blame them? (Did I mention there was free ham?)

Teruel Ancient Roman Aqueduct

Next stop, Cuenca...

...just in time for a spectacular thunderstorm that lit up the sky and soaked the town (and me). But the sun came out long enough for me to dry off and walk around and see some of this amazing town.

Built atop cliffs on the edge of a river gorge, some of the buildings appear to be barely hanging on to the edge of the cliffs!

And finally Toledo... Spain's mini-sized version of Rome. Toledo is a fascinating walled city with a mind-boggling labyrinth of narrow streets, plazas, ancient cathedrals, mosques and synagogues to explore...

Bird's eye view of Toledo from the tower of one of the cathedrals

Next up Madrid!