Spanish Road Trip 2022, Day 10 Cuenca to Nogueruelas
Spanish Road Trip 2022 - Cuenca to Nogueruelas 203km, 3rd August. Our last night on this years road trip, and unfortunately once again we could not book the accommodation we really wanted in Montanejos, so had to book what was available in the nearby village of Nogueruelas about 30kms away.
The journey from Cuenca was simply stunning, driving through the heart of the Cuenca Mountain Range with its majestic rock formations and miles and miles of thick pine forests.
The vast majority of our journey seemed to be following the course of the Jucar river where we came across the wonderful Emblase de la Toba, which is the largest lagoon in the Natural Park of the Serranía de Cuenca.
The Toba Reservoir was built in 1925 to regulate the flow of the Júcar River, bathing and canoeing is actually permitted in this reservoir so its a popular area during the summer months, and for those more adventurous there are various caves and canyons to explore.
We drove through a couple of places that may be worth exploring next time we are in this area, Albarracín, which we did try to stop at but it seemed to be very busy and there was no parking available and Teruel.
Spanish Road trip 2022
Nogueruelas - A municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon and was really just a stop over, so we did not expect much knowing it was just a very small village, in fact the village only had 227 inhabitants at the last count, all of which seemed to know each other and we were lucky enough to come across some kind of children´s party going on in the small square, with children of all ages participating in water games, nice to watch but slightly inconvenient for us as all the roads were blocked during this event, so we could not go anywhere even if we needed to.
This whole area is popular with hikers, cyclists with various routes available for those feeling fit, and of course skiers in the winter, as the ski slopes of Valdelinares are just a 35-minute drive away.
Night 10 accommodation - Hostal de Montaña La Cas Grande, 3 star 66.60€ including breakfast. Free Parking
Looking forward to our last nights stay and picking this Hostal simply because it looked nicer than some of the others available and had an onsite restaurant, this turned out to be a big disappointment.
The first thing we noticed about the room was that there were plenty of radiators but NO air con, to be fair this was our fault for not double checking when booking.
The room was a good size with a nice big comfortable bed and the bathroom was more than adequate for a one nights stay.
The outside terrace area which looked so nice and inviting in their photos, was sadly untidy and uncared for.
The only bonus was that this Hostal had a lift, which is quite rare, the only problem was we had to stand cheek to cheek, but it did get us to the 3rd floor.
The real problems started when due to lack of anywhere else to eat in the village, we headed to the onsite restaurant, we asked to see the menu del dia, which we saw another couple had and were told "no sorry, this is not available at night" not to cause any trouble we ordered from the normal menu, which did not have a great deal of choice and was expensive. Bread and our bottle of wine were delivered to the table, all ok so far, but I had ordered the sirloin steak, when it appeared, there was more fat on it than meat and it could not even be cut with the steak knife provided, when this was pointed out to the waiter, he promptly gave me a butter knife..... not quite sure how that was going to be better than a sharp steak knife, complaining again they offered to cook me another steak, was this any better.... NO just the same, fatty and inedible. To be honest this was the worst meal during our whole 10 day road trip, and such a shame as it was our last night.
Sleeping - You would think being in the middle of the mountains in a small village, it would be quiet at night, sadly this was not the case and we were both awakened at around 5am with dogs barking which sounded like something from the hound of the Baskervilles movie and the local council emptying the bins, going outside for a cigarette we actually discussed leaving and cutting our losses, (we had already paid, but would be skipping breakfast) but decided it was too early to really go anywhere, so back to bed and managed to make it until breakfast was served. This again was a bit of a disappointment, the baguettes were already pre toasted and cold,, so our tostada con tomate was not up to its usual standard and every other guest seemed to be served their coffee at the table where as we had to go to the bar for ours.
Would we stay here again? That would be a NO, we have no idea how they have a 3 star rating and a 9.2 score from the booking company, they certainly did not get a glowing review from us.
Next stop - Home via one of our favourite places, Montanejos.
Additional Pictures Below
