Ciudad Real, Spain, lies 100 mi/160 km south of Madrid and serves as a good base for seeing the region that surrounds it: La Mancha, popularized by Don Quixote. (Indeed, there are windmills in the dry plains surrounding the city and in a number of towns in the region.)
Visit the Church of San Pedro and Puerta de Toledo (a gate with horseshoe arches). Don Quixote began his wanderings in the nearby town of Puerto Lapice. Other towns in the area worth visiting include Campo de Criptana (several windmills), Consuegra (several windmills and a castle) and Almagro (with a Dominican convent, a 16th-century open-air theater and a national theater museum).
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