Morning
Colegio de San Ildefonso. The university's founding college — the plateresque facade, the Paraninfo where the Cervantes Prize is awarded, and Cisneros' marble tomb. Guided visits run daily.
Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes. The reconstructed birth house of the man himself, free, on the Calle Mayor — with the famous bench of Quixote and Sancho outside.
Afternoon
University quarter & stork towers — 3 km · 1.5 h. Plaza de Cervantes → Calle Mayor arcades → Casa de Cervantes → Catedral Magistral → Palacio Arzobispal walls → back along Calle Colegios past the parador. Count the stork nests as you go — the town keeps an official census.
Calle Mayor's arcades. 500 medieval metres of columned portico — tapas at the Indalo or a menú at the Hostería del Estudiante, storks clattering overhead.
Evening
Roman Complutum & the Casa de Hippolytus. The Roman city Alcalá grew from — mosaics and a schoolhouse for patrician youth, 20 minutes' walk from the centre.
Sleeping here? Inside the historic grid, everything is five minutes apart — aim for the Calle Mayor / Plaza de Cervantes axis. The parador end (Calle Colegios) is quietest. Near the Cercanías station works for early trains but sacrifices the evening atmosphere that justifies staying at all.
Questions, answered
Where to sleep: Alcalá de Henares
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