Windmills in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

© Getty Image

A Spanish knight's greatest foes. Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

In the town of Consuegra, the echoes of the adventures of Don Quixote—the hero of the Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes—still linger. This tourist destination in Castilla-La Mancha is famous for a small mountain range known as Cerro Calderico. The range is crowned with 12 white windmills, perhaps the very same that inspired Cervantes to picture them as an army of giants. With their stone walls and wooden blades, some of these windmills date back to the 16th century. Now, they are living relics of a bygone era when they were used to grind grain.

Castilla-La Mancha is the third largest region—after Castile y León and Andalusia—in Spain, yet it has a relatively low population compared to its size. The capital city of the region, Toledo, has a significant architectural and cultural legacy—including Old Town and the Catedral de Toledo—that led to its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. So, for your next quest, let the windmills of Castilla-La Mancha whisper their timeless tales in your ear.