ALCALÁ DE HENARES IS 560 KM from Málaga and 30° cooler. It’s also a World Heritage site, birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes and, most important, only 30-minutes from Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport. We will be flying to India on Friday and wanted to get the long drive out of the way.
Plaza de Cervantes
Peeking into the University
We have a cute apartment right on Plaza de Cervantes surrounded by the University. The neighborhood is pedestrian only but there is no need for a car and we have cheap underground parking just a few hundred meters away.
Miquel de Cervantes tilting at windmills
Sancho and Don Q
Connie as Dulcinea
Most everything centers around Plaza de Cervantes and Calle Mayor. The statue of Cervantes himself dominates the Plaza—it’s his neighborhood after all. The Capilla del Oidor where he was baptized is at the end of the Plaza. You could almost kick a football from his statue down Calle Mayor to the popular statue of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote. His most famous characters share a bench with room for a tourist in between, which sits in front of the place where Cervantes was born.
Calle Mayor
Santos Niños Cathedral
Nesting White Storks
Calle Mayor is the longest colonnaded street in Spain and you can see columns recycled from many eras of Spanish history supporting well-preserved homes. There’s no shortage of churches, either, most with a pair of white storks nesting on the spires, which John found fascinating. He is so easily entertained!
