It wasn’t until we started to head north from Cádiz on the A66 and saw the roadside signs that name the route as such, that we realised we were more or less following the old Roman road that carried silver south from the mines in the north – the Ruta de la Plata.
Which seemed entirely appropriate, as this first city stop as we make our way back to France, has been on Mr B’s hit list for ages! Renowned (at least in our Rough Guide, which has let us down a few times…) as having the largest concentration of Roman artefacts in Spain, it had always been too far north or south of our usual transit routes into Portugal over the last 25+ years, and so remained unvisited…until now!
Adding to the excitement for Mr B, was the existence of an ‘Area de Autocaravanas’ right in the centre. Building on the French model, these offer a free, or paying chance to stop over in locations that may not have a handy campsite – or in this case, a campsite that was a bus ride away from the old city and with reviews that were so bad, we really didn’t want to opt for plan B!
At €12 a night (€15 with electric), with access to toilets, fresh water and chemical toilet/drains as well as a nearby laundrette, it’s a great alternative to a campsite!
We struck lucky, arriving to find only three other vans there (Spanish, Portuguese and German – 14 spaces in total) and set off to find the Turismo, so Mr B could put together some sort of plan for the next day, knowing that there was way more to do than we’d be likely to have time for.
The very helpful woman at the Turismo gave us loads of info, including details of a useful 50% discount ticket to get into a number of the main attractions… so long as we were EU citizens… and suggested that we head straight over to the (free) national museum of Roman art before it closed later that evening!
The museum building itself was impressive in its own right, built in 1986 and mirroring Roman brick building style, it housed what seemed like an enormous number of statues, artefacts and mosaic floors – all found within the footprint of Roman Emérita Augusta/Mérida, a colony established by retired Roman soldiers and part of the very clever way the Romans had of ‘pacifying’ their new territories.
The sheer scale of some of the mosaic floors, some mounted on walls to better view and appreciate them, was breathtaking, along with a vast range of statues and everyday Roman artefacts.
As closing time neared we headed outside, to be greeted by a cacophony of birdsong, a regular occurrence at dawn and dusk we learned. We’ve only ever heard something like this before with ‘lolas’ or parakeets, but none of the people we spoke to knew the type of bird. And as we couldn’t see them, we left just as unknowing!
Spotting a nearby jamonero/bodega, Mrs B soon found that there was an entire section given over to Extremeñan produce – and this being our first time exploring Extremadura rather than simply passing through, we were pleased to see that there is a wine DOC we were entirely unaware of – Ribera del Guadiana. And not only that, some of the wines featured the Alicante Bouchet grape, or Garnacha Tintorera here, which we have not had in an absolute age. Needless to say, dinner that night was washed down with a very lush bottle of local red!
Mr B was up with the lark the next morning, raring to get at the Romans! We’d decided to go for the combined entry ticket which, when chatting to the woman at the Turismo the previous evening, we thought we may get away with the 50% discount as we still have EU passports. She certainly seemed to indicate it was worth a try…
Not so the chap on the ticket desk the next morning though, and in spite of Mr B waving our red EU passports around and using his best Spanish to argue a case, it was made quite clear to him that we were no longer EU citizens since Brexit. And so, running out of arguments and Spanish vocabulary, Mr B had to admit defeat and pay full price, whilst thanking Boris and co for yet another Brexit bonus!
But, as the following pics hopefully show, it was worth every Euro!
We started with the amphitheatre…
followed by the theatre…
the temple of Diana…
the Roman bridge (with the modern Lusitania bridge behind)…
the Alcazaba Arabe and its well…
a stop in the centre for lunch…
back to the van for afternoon tea, where we had been joined by more travellers…
then on to the funeral columns and aqueduct, complete with resident stork…
and then, with legs tiring and Roman overload looming, the Circus, where chariot races, betting and general mob-placating used to take place, Ben Hur style!
We could, and maybe should, have stayed another night and had a wander round the old town of Mérida and admire the monuments lit up in the dark.
Next time then, as there is so much more to see and explore in this part of Extremadura!
S&J
07.11.22
Great read as usual folks xx
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