The Picture Book Landscape of La Mancha

“The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha” was written by Spanish author, poet and playwright Miguel de Cervantes. He died in Madrid on 23 April 1616 and a monument to him has stood in Plaza de España since 1930. During his adventurous lifetime he was a soldier, tax collector and even a prison inmate. His novel is considered a masterpiece of world literature.

Where better to start tracing Don Quixote’s footsteps than the UNESCO World Heritage city of Alcalá. Cast in metal, he and fellow literary hero Sancho Panza sit outside the house where Cervantes was born in 1547 to an impoverished aristocratic family. His exact date of birth is unknown, but it’s thought to be September 29. A trip to the house gives visitors a wonderful taste of his checkered life.

The “Ruta de Don Quijote” begins south of Madrid and criss-crosses the La Mancha region. When the 11 windmills of Consuegra appear on the horizon, you know you have almost reached the scene of Quixote’s most famous adventure – his battle with the windmills. Visitors can also look around the Sancho Panza mill, which still has the original grinding mechanism from the time of Cervantes.

Don Quixote, down on one knee in the historic center of El Toboso, adoring Dulcinea del Toboso just as he did in the novel. Tradition has it that the woman who provided Cervantes’ inspiration for Dulcinea lived in this dwelling in El Toboso. It now houses a museum about rural life in La Mancha 400 years ago. Visitors can see also see the 200 plus copies of Quixote signed by various famous figures.

In the novel, Don Quixote discovers that Merlin the wizard turned Lady Ruidera and her daughters into lagoons. These “Lagunas de Ruidera” are now a UNESCO biosphere reserve in the heart of La Mancha and are considered some of Spain’s most beautiful wetlands, made up of 15 lakes connected by small waterfalls and rivers brimming with fish.

Spain has around 10,000 caves in total. Some are open to the public and are popular with tourists. The Cave of Montesinos is one of them. In Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote descends into this cave where he has an imaginary encounter with the magician Montesinos and travels through time. Nowadays tourists take literary or geological tours into the depths. At the bottom there is a gushing river.

The characters in Don Quixote also have to eat and drink, of course. And on the way back to Madrid, tourists can follow in Don Quixote’s footsteps in Puerto Lápice, for example, whose taverns are mentioned by Cervantes. There you can sample simple hearty dishes with lots of vegetables, saffron, accompanied by bread, the world-famous Manchego cheese and a young wine from the region.

Cervantes claims to have based the story of Don Quixote on a historical manuscript written by an Arab historian that he found in Toledo. The region’s capital in the north of Castilla-La Mancha was made into a UNESCO world heritage site in 1986. You shouldn’t miss the cathedral, the Mosque Cristo de la Luz and synagogues, like El Tránsito – a legacy of the city’s multicultural past.