Clayton and Hailey: 2011

This is a picture of Atocha (the train station in Madrid that was bombed while Clayton was there on his mission) This is the area of the station that was bombed. They hit it a little early so it exploded right before it went underneath into the actual station so there wasn't too much damage.

We got a rental car and headed out across the Spanish countryside.

(That juice was my lifesaving nectar, haha. It didn't have to be refrigerated so I had that with me at all times and some Maria cookies and almond granola bars that I snacked on constantly. Thanks snacks for keeping the trip great, even with such unpredictable eating schedules. Not to say I still didn't have my moments, but they were few and mostly in non-public areas)

Here is Spanish countryside

They had random fields of red poppies all over the place. So pretty

Then we arrived in Cuenca. After so much open road we had an interesting driving situation or two in Cuenca because the streets were so incredibly tight. You'll have to ask Clayton about those though. Key words. 1 Running a light on a one way street, and 2 Trying to navigate the car to where I was standing after getting lost. Great stories and memories although stressful at the time. :)

Here is the view off of one side of Cuenca...

...from ontop of this thing that was constructed around the time of the Romans. That street Clayton is standing on is the main street. Yes, it is small

So we climbed up this structure and who knows why there was a prison gate halfway up? I don't know. Then we saw the view of the whole area from the top.

We headed up the street and found a cute restaurant to have lunch (those pictures are at the end). As we saw the view of the Hanging Houses from far away.

In order to get a better picture, Clayton wanted me to jump across this gulf that was forever deep and I was feeling pregnant and off balance and in flipflops. He was a little disappointed in me. Oh well. For once I wasn't the adventurous one. It was wider than it looks too, I might add.

The view. If you look close you can see the main famous hanging house wrapped up like a present.

This was just a cute house and I want to have this many flower pots one day.

Then we hiked down through the city. Clayton liked this street. It was cute.

The town Cathedral

The Plaza Mayor for Cuenca.

They have these drinkable water fountains in random spots all over the different cities. They just run constantly and you can just walk up and drink or fill up your water bottle. Genius.

A little bit of Spanish engineering. Ha! Glad that's not my house

The Hanging Houses

So we tried to navigate to this spot by walking but we passed the bridge and ended up below it and totally in the wrong spot, so Clayton went to get the car and come find me (insert interesting driving story here). After a long while, we made it over to the other side of the bridge in our car and approached from the other direction. :) So we walked across this bridge which was really cool.

We saw the Elders walking on the road below us, so of course we yelled and said hello. They looked like they were really bored. I felt bad that we couldn't get down to talk and and least talk to them a little. Oh well, hopefully it brightened their day for someone to say Hi instead of spit on them.

We asked the locals why the house was wrapped like a present. They said, "So more people will come and see it." ??? What makes them see that we would all want to come see some major icon that they have made un-see-able? Clayton was really mad because he said that is the coolest house so I'll just have to imagine it.

We stopped and had lunch in Cuenca before we ventured over to see the Hanging Houses but these pictures are in the wrong order. It was delicious. Cheese and tortilla of course. Then we had some lamb dish that you dipped bread in. It was great. And also some intestines. They were actually really good, but I could only do one bite, being nauseous and all, the thought was just too much for me.

These next two pictures are of the drive between Cuenca and Ciudad Encantada. I wish the camera could actually capture how pretty it was. There is a small farm town in the distance in this picture. We drove closer to it but I couldn't get a picture.

I want to live right here in this valley.

Clayton took me to Ciudad Encantada or "The Enchanted City" which is outside Cuenca about a half hour or so. Totally worth the rental car and the drive. It is an area in the mountains where glacier/water formed these awesome formations all by each other and you can walk around and look at them.

This is the famous rock at the entrance but we had to use the cell phone camera, so sorry about the picture quality.

There is a trail that leads around and through all the different rock formations and they give you a little map so you can see what they have named them all and what animals they have decided they look like. This was in a cave between the "ships"

How am I so strong? Well, let me tell you......I'm not

??? Ballet ???

I think these are the ships or boats. It was so green and smelled so good. I wanted to just lay down and camp under the stars. I loved it!!

This was "the alligator and the elephant" fighting. It's not quite a great picture but the alligator is on the left and the elephant on the right, and a few trees in the way.

"The Face" if you couldn't tell.

Not sure what's going on in this picture either

Part of the trail led up above the formations where you could see out for a ways. It just looked like volcanic rock that had settled. But down below, the water had created all the formations over thousands of years, thousands of years ago. Super cool.