Windmills in Campo de Criptana, Spain

For Francisco Rico in "Don Quixote" the countryside of La Mancha is more felt than described. "La Mancha, a land with very little in its favour for those who don’t look beneath the surface; yet this is a land which can maintain the delicate balance between honour and poverty and is the setting Cervantes chooses to unleash the great battle between idealism and realism", according to Manuel Criado de Val.