Cuenca in the Rain
Last week, my long suffering girlfriend and I went on an extended weekend road trip from Madrid to Valencia. En route, we stayed a couple of nights in the historic hill city of Cuenca, situated about 80 miles east of Madrid on the edge of the Serrania de Cuenca.
Being somewhat ignorant of Spanish tourist destinations, I was unsure as to what to expect from the place and, if I’m being honest, my google searches on the area were mainly about whether or not it was close enough to a Dark-Sky area that I could nip out in the middle of the night for some astrophotography. (It’s not).
What it does boast is a UNESCO World Heritage site...
Within the ancient walled city are a maze of medieval, cobblestone streets, an ostentatious cathedral full of relics built and extended over half a millennium, and it’s most striking asset, The Hanging Houses – abodes built into the limestone precipice that overlooks the river valley below.
With this not being a photography trip in itself and with the rainy, overcast weather not being particularly conducive to the long exposures that I had planned, I had a play with shooting for reflections in the moments between the torrential downpours of rain, had a wander around the Cathedral and went to drink gin until either it stopped raining or I stopped caring that it was raining.
As the sun threatened to set, I wandered up to the top of the rocky outcrop overlooking the city in the vain hope that the clouds might miraculously disappear. They didn’t. But, somewhat unexpectedly, spotlights started to light up the city walls from below at about the same time that a bit of texture started to form in some of clouds on the horizon.
I settled on taking a sweeping panorama of the valley below, using the colour contrast of the blue hue of the stormy twilight with the orange glow of the city, and a sweeping curve in the shape of the valley swerving around convent on the left hand side.
All in all, I was pretty happy with what I got to take away from the flying visit to Cuenca, it’s a city I’ll certainly try and photograph again. A proper sunset over that city must be a spectacular vista.
