Ruta de la Plata Part 2 Days 45-46 Cáceres – confusion, consternation and a climbing competition…

Just a short hop up the Ruta de la Plata, Cáceres had been chosen by Mr B, having read in our Rough Guide about its ‘stork topped towers that dotted the wall which circled the mediaeval centre’. Not to mention that we had also discovered that it had been used for filming the recent Game of Thrones prequel, leading us to expect something not hugely different from Dubrovnik, perhaps…

 

Well, maybe our arrival at our pitch at Camping Cáceres and its quirky, personal ‘bathroom hut’ should have alerted us to the fact that all might not be what it seems here…

 

 

We have come across these ablution arrangements before, in Italy. And, were we travelling in the summer, the unheated, tiled and unventilated wet room might have had more appeal. However, under a tree, with no warmth even in the full autumn sun, its appeal was lost on us!

 

Undeterred by the quirky hut, we set off the next morning for a day exploring the old city. We could have had a better start: having confirmed with reception that the bus into the city left from outside the site, Mr B got it into his head that it was actually the other side of a bridge over the nearby main road. Had it been a week day, he would have been right… as it was Saturday, however, we had the pleasure of watching our bus stop outside the site we had just left, and then head into the city… Still, we had a nice view from the bridge…

 

 

One hour later we were on the next bus, and disembarking at a roundabout rather than the normal stop we had been told to look out for, we could see that the road where we should have got off was closed due to an accident…

 

 

… except, of course, it wasn’t real, just filming, Cáceres style!

 

Arriving at the main square in front of the old city, we were surprised to hear what sounded like a late finishing, or early starting, full bore Euro-pop disco around the corner, only to be greeted by a huge crowd watching a climbing competition, set up in front of the entrance to the old city!

 

 

With national TV on hand, it was clearly a big deal and we were soon absorbed watching different youth teams compete.

 

 

It did, however, detract a little from our expectations, and combined with the large tour groups we dodged around, not to mention the absence of storks (or even abandoned nests) we wandered around the old city practising our best techniques for expectation management…

 

Seeking refuge in a fascinating exhibition of lithographs, lino prints and water colours by Mirò, Dali and Picasso, we managed to allow enough time to elapse for the groups to clear before we managed to explore without most of the hordes.

 

 

The old city had plenty of photogenic vistas…

 

 

 

but our favourite bits were in an old Arab family home that had been turned into a museum celebrating Arabic culture and the city’s Islamic period…

 

 

…and wandering outside the walls on the non tourist side, where we learned about the back breaking work (by the women) of hauling water from the stream outside the walls back into the houses, using big jugs on their heads. The men, used donkeys…

 

 

Our cunning plan for avoiding the crowds soon presented an immediate drawback however, as we climbed back up into the old city and main square, we couldn’t get a vacant table at a single resto/café anywhere! So, making do with a snack bar substitute outside the city walls, we promised ourselves for future visits to swerve cities on Saturdays, do more advance planning where we can, and recognise that the fickle finger of fate will always have the last laugh!

 

Our next stop is Salamanca, further up the Ruta de la Plata and – we’ll be there on a weekday!

 

S&J

12.11.22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruta de la Plata Part 1 Day 44 Marvellous Mérida, rammed with Romans – and so much more!

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

Al Andalus Part 4 Days 38-43 Conil de la Frontera and Cádiz – Beaches, birds and bastions – oh – and Halloween on steroids. Days 38 – 43

 After a quick lunch stop on the cliffs above Conil beach, partly for Mr B to have a quick power nap, partly to wait until reception at our chosen site would be open, and partly to try and remember if we’d ever stopped on the beach at Conil on one of our trips 25+ years ago (we failed!), we set off for Camping Rosaleda. This was our first choice campsite as it was closer to the town and therefore nearer for the bus into Cádiz , one of the main reasons for stopping here.

 

Entering a very busy reception, a nonplussed Mr B soon returned to Evie with a glum face and the news that the site was full for the three day Halloween festival! We’ve not travelled in Spain over this period before and it showed…

 

Even though the actual days, (31^st October and 1^st/2^nd November) were still four days away, we now know it’s common for los campings to put on a big show of animaciònes (parades, disco, karaoke) and to have huge family get-togethers over the nearest weekend.

 

So it was on to our plan B site, Camping Roche, further out of town and more rural than we would have liked, but it had spaces when we arrived late afternoon, so met what was by now our key criterion, a vacant parcela!

 

Although a bit scruffy and basic, we came to love our little piece of dusty Halloween heaven. After initially bracing ourselves for three nights of witchy wildness we realised we had lucked out: mainly quiet after midnight (except for the obligatory soundscape of dogs and roosters); easy access to shops and beaches (with Evie); decent facilities; and for Mr B, a chance to practise Spanish at last, with most campers over the holiday period being Spanish, as well as extra sociable over a holiday weekend!

 

 

We liked it so much that we ended up staying for six nights, with the weather delivering a toasty mid 20s in the day and high teens at night. And luckily, the only-too-familiar-and-fierce Levante wind (known from our many visits in the past to Tarifa, a little further south), which blew for 24 hours solid on our arrival, had a rest and we had the gentle Poniente for the rest of our stay. Phew!

 

Our first bit of exploring was to find easy access to the beach. Being mainly backed by sandstone cliffs where we could park, we needed to find somewhere with a sloped path to get our beach trolley down. After a few false starts, we found a spot in a quiet bit of condo-land where we had spotted a possible track down to the beach on Google Maps.

 

The track took us through a gully between condos on either side, and let onto a lovely and almost deserted beach – perfect…

 

 

…or so we thought. It was only after we had taken a leisurely stroll along the beach to check it out for another day, that we realised whilst great at low tide, once the tide came in, which it had started to, and quickly, that there wasn’t actually much of a beach at all!

 

Beach plans were put on hold and, having seen a lighthouse in the near distance, we decided to go exploring north along the cliffs. Which is how we chanced across this intriguing collection of old anchors at Puerto Roche…

 

 

…and a beautiful mirador at the lighthouse above, where we enjoyed afternoon tea whilst learning that we were right on the flight path for a whole variety of migrating birds heading for the straits of Gibraltar down the coast and onto Africa – including spoonbills and griffon vultures! Scanning the skies in hope, the best we managed were a few herring gulls!

 

 

Later that evening we were treated to the locals parading around the site…

 

 

… as well as a tempting glimpse of the pool – still open, so a real treat this late in the year!

 

 

Our main reason for stopping over at Conil was to visit Cádiz, somewhere we had driven past so many times and were now keen to explore, especially as we had loved our stop at Sanlúcar just up the coast back in 2016.

 

Our trip into the city involved a cab ride into Conil, and a one-hour bus journey to get there. So imagine our disappointment when the sun, which we had started the day with, disappeared behind some murky clouds.

 

 

Our pics don’t do the city justice, but the bits we really enjoyed were: the amazing tree-lined prom, ficus magnolia at over 120 years of age…

 

 

…. the camera obscura (with a poster that mentioned the Brighton one!) with views that included the massive cruise liners that disgorge thousands of visitors…

 

 

the American and Spanish naval base across the water…

 

 

the amazing art on the walls of the municipal market…

 

 

the delicious tortaillitas de camerones (thin, crispy shrimp fritters) and a glass of Manzanilla (yum!)…

 

 

the incredible tableaux made from stall holders’ produce as part of the traditional ‘tosantos’ All-Saints’-night festival…

 

and, as we walked our tired legs back to the bus station, an animated animatronic street music show to bring a smile to our faces for the long journey back!

 

 

With one day left to unwind by the pool, we added on another day on the beach before the great march north up the ‘Ruta de la Plata’ to visit some cities on our hit list before heading to France. And we lucked out with a beach in Conil we could drive right up to…

 

 

where we passed a lovely day reading and swimming/body surfing in the still-warm Atlantic, until the sun started to drop in the sky and reminded us that we had reached the end of our endless summer sojourn…

 

 

Thanks Conil de la Frontera – we had a great time!

 

S&J

06.11.22