Madrid has endless nightlife, we laughed as we left the apartment this morning at 6:00 a.m. and found the streets full of young people still out on the town. The garbage crews were out as well, they never experience a lonely shift, as this city never sleeps. We walked down to the plaza to catch the express bus to the airport, people were everywhere and all the city buses were running and busy enough, considering the hour.
Madrid is very noisy, we were lucky we had an apartment with a view of walls and other apartments, as that indicated that we were not on the street side, which would have resulted in little sleep, our place was very quiet at night.
When we got to Brussels it was raining like mad and very windy, but we were about to be spoiled by our Belgian friends who picked us up at the airport and took us to lunch. We had a lovely lunch, then we checked into our hotel and the four of us walked to an Irish pub. After a fantastic visit, we bid our friends farewell.
Tomorrow we fly home, we are planning to take a bus to the airport but there is to be a trade union strike, so we don’t know how it will all work out. Plan B is, of course, a taxi.
Sunday 29 March 2015
Saturday 28 March 2015
Last Day in Madrid
It was a gorgeous day today, sunny and hot. We walked over to the navel museum but the whole street was cordoned off and swarming with guards and cops. The friendly military-looking guy apologized profusely that we could not enter the museum due to an ‘emergency.’ The museum is located in a military building and he did not know when the situation would resolve. There tends to be a lot of armed guard-type personnel hanging around government buildings in Madrid, we see them a lot.
We walked over to a large park in Madrid, the Parque de el Retiro, as it is a pleasant green space with a lot of statues and fountains. The Monument to Alfonso XII is fronted by a small concrete pond where people rent rowboats to float around the small pond. We found this somewhat bizarre as we are accustomed to canoeing in gigantic bodies of water.
Next, a walk into old Madrid was on the agenda, where we roamed the streets and plazas but avoided the main tourist areas. We stopped for our obligatory café con leche in Plaza del Angel, and sat outside at a table. The prices in Madrid are double what they are in the rural areas of Spain.
We don’t really rely on a map, we just walk and use the sun to determine which direction to go when we have had enough walking and want to go back in the direction of our apartment. We stopped in at our apartment as John needed a cooler shirt, we had a yogourt, as we need to consume all of our groceries today, and then we walked to the Sorolla Museum.
Sorolla, 1863 - 1923, was a painter from Valencia, on the south coast of Spain, he moved to Madrid in 1890. His paintings of the seaside are beautiful, he captures the light of the Valencian coast in his paintings. He was a prolific and hard working painter, painting for six to nine hours a day.
The museum is located in the Sorolla home, which was designed by Sorolla. It is rather unique to get to see his studio, as well as many other rooms with furnishings, which are now used as a gallery for his work. This is a wonderful museum to visit as there is an Andalusian garden, a collection of ceramics, and Sorolla’s paintings, it is all quite idyllic. We visited during a time of free admission and it was not busy; quite the contrast to the Prado, which had a lineup a mile long when we walked by earlier in the day.
The Sorolla Museum is located north of central Madrid in the trendy Salamanca area, which is very quiet with nary a tourist. After we left the Sorolla Museum we walked back into the thick of things and bought a good bottle of wine, as this is our last night in Spain.
Tomorrow we have to get a very early start to catch the express bus to the airport to catch a flight to Brussels. We are looking forward to having lunch with our Belgian friends tomorrow, but the weather will be a shock, as it is supposed to be windy and wet with a high of 10 degrees in Brussels, today we had a high of 26 degrees or so. After an overnight stay in Brussels, we fly home.
This has been another spectacular trip, we have loved all of it, Spain is an exceptional country for travel. We appreciated the various areas of Spain, they have a strong regional identity and promote the products from their region. We were forever encountering shops in the tiniest of villages that advertised ‘Products from Extremadura.’ We are hard pressed to find anything from Extremadura in Madrid. And the people were a joy to meet and interact with, even though our communication skills in Spanish are limited, it just does not matter.
We walked over to a large park in Madrid, the Parque de el Retiro, as it is a pleasant green space with a lot of statues and fountains. The Monument to Alfonso XII is fronted by a small concrete pond where people rent rowboats to float around the small pond. We found this somewhat bizarre as we are accustomed to canoeing in gigantic bodies of water.
Next, a walk into old Madrid was on the agenda, where we roamed the streets and plazas but avoided the main tourist areas. We stopped for our obligatory café con leche in Plaza del Angel, and sat outside at a table. The prices in Madrid are double what they are in the rural areas of Spain.
We don’t really rely on a map, we just walk and use the sun to determine which direction to go when we have had enough walking and want to go back in the direction of our apartment. We stopped in at our apartment as John needed a cooler shirt, we had a yogourt, as we need to consume all of our groceries today, and then we walked to the Sorolla Museum.
Sorolla, 1863 - 1923, was a painter from Valencia, on the south coast of Spain, he moved to Madrid in 1890. His paintings of the seaside are beautiful, he captures the light of the Valencian coast in his paintings. He was a prolific and hard working painter, painting for six to nine hours a day.
The museum is located in the Sorolla home, which was designed by Sorolla. It is rather unique to get to see his studio, as well as many other rooms with furnishings, which are now used as a gallery for his work. This is a wonderful museum to visit as there is an Andalusian garden, a collection of ceramics, and Sorolla’s paintings, it is all quite idyllic. We visited during a time of free admission and it was not busy; quite the contrast to the Prado, which had a lineup a mile long when we walked by earlier in the day.
The Sorolla Museum is located north of central Madrid in the trendy Salamanca area, which is very quiet with nary a tourist. After we left the Sorolla Museum we walked back into the thick of things and bought a good bottle of wine, as this is our last night in Spain.
Tomorrow we have to get a very early start to catch the express bus to the airport to catch a flight to Brussels. We are looking forward to having lunch with our Belgian friends tomorrow, but the weather will be a shock, as it is supposed to be windy and wet with a high of 10 degrees in Brussels, today we had a high of 26 degrees or so. After an overnight stay in Brussels, we fly home.
This has been another spectacular trip, we have loved all of it, Spain is an exceptional country for travel. We appreciated the various areas of Spain, they have a strong regional identity and promote the products from their region. We were forever encountering shops in the tiniest of villages that advertised ‘Products from Extremadura.’ We are hard pressed to find anything from Extremadura in Madrid. And the people were a joy to meet and interact with, even though our communication skills in Spanish are limited, it just does not matter.
Palacio de Cibeles
Parque de el Retiro
Monumento Alfonso XII and boats in the concrete pond (you can't make this stuff up)
More buildings in Madrid, we don't really care for the style of the buildings
This is as close as we got to the Prado, sculpture of Velázquez outside the Prado
Sorolla Museum
This bird was singing in the garden outside the Sorolla Museum
Andalucian garden at the Sorolla Museum
Friday 27 March 2015
Madrid
I am always floored when in large European cities; there is so much focus on food and shopping. There are restaurants, bars and cafes by the zillion, no matter what time of day it is, people are eating and drinking. We are going to miss the food shopping in Spain, as it has been endlessly wonderful for us.
This morning, we set off for the archaeological museum, which is terrific. Everything is displayed so well, but the Spanish really set the plot for the visitor by planning your route. We have noted this before and it has got to the point where we want to just go about at random to subvert the plan. The museums also provide the most dullest jobs on the planet, there are a lot of attendants who just stand around and watch, we don’t know how they don’t go out of their minds with boredom. If any visitor even looks as though they may do something untoward, the attendants are wheeling in their direction immediately. A screaming kid was chastised while the mom was trying to get him to stop, even though he was having his screaming fit in a corridor between two sections.
As is often the case in most countries, the city museums get all the goods, when it would be better if the artifacts were left where history put them. We are seeing the originals which we should have seen on our recent travels through Spain.
The museum is just too large to cope with all in one day and we burned out after about 3.5 hours. So we pretty much flew through a lot of the Roman and Greek sections as we are quite familiar with those after our travels to Italy. We completely skipped the Christian era and the more modern sections as they don’t hold much interest for us.
The strength of the archaeology museum lies within its Iberian and Celtic collections, in our opinion, of course. We spent most of our time there looking at some really wonderful pieces and the historical information provided is extensive and informative.
After we left the museum, we basically walked around the city for the rest of the day. The city centre is rather compact and can be walked a lot quicker than we realized. We walked through a lot of the main plazas, which are quite busy. The traffic is heavy and the streets become mobbed as the evening wears on with people on foot. Other than those who are constantly trying to hand out food leaflets, you really don’t get bugged in Madrid, which is great.
This is an art city, known for world-class art museums, but we have a limit on the amount of time we can tolerate in a museum and the archaeology museum did us in today. We want to visit the naval museum tomorrow and will see how much more we can take. We really like Madrid and want to explore more of the city, it is a great city to just walk in.
This is what we looked like after spending too much time in the archaeology museum, Roman mosaic, of course, The Genius of the Year, late 2nd century
This morning, we set off for the archaeological museum, which is terrific. Everything is displayed so well, but the Spanish really set the plot for the visitor by planning your route. We have noted this before and it has got to the point where we want to just go about at random to subvert the plan. The museums also provide the most dullest jobs on the planet, there are a lot of attendants who just stand around and watch, we don’t know how they don’t go out of their minds with boredom. If any visitor even looks as though they may do something untoward, the attendants are wheeling in their direction immediately. A screaming kid was chastised while the mom was trying to get him to stop, even though he was having his screaming fit in a corridor between two sections.
As is often the case in most countries, the city museums get all the goods, when it would be better if the artifacts were left where history put them. We are seeing the originals which we should have seen on our recent travels through Spain.
The museum is just too large to cope with all in one day and we burned out after about 3.5 hours. So we pretty much flew through a lot of the Roman and Greek sections as we are quite familiar with those after our travels to Italy. We completely skipped the Christian era and the more modern sections as they don’t hold much interest for us.
The strength of the archaeology museum lies within its Iberian and Celtic collections, in our opinion, of course. We spent most of our time there looking at some really wonderful pieces and the historical information provided is extensive and informative.
After we left the museum, we basically walked around the city for the rest of the day. The city centre is rather compact and can be walked a lot quicker than we realized. We walked through a lot of the main plazas, which are quite busy. The traffic is heavy and the streets become mobbed as the evening wears on with people on foot. Other than those who are constantly trying to hand out food leaflets, you really don’t get bugged in Madrid, which is great.
This is an art city, known for world-class art museums, but we have a limit on the amount of time we can tolerate in a museum and the archaeology museum did us in today. We want to visit the naval museum tomorrow and will see how much more we can take. We really like Madrid and want to explore more of the city, it is a great city to just walk in.
Iberian 4th - 1st century BC
Iberian, The Lady of Baza
This is exquisite, Iberian, The Lady of Elche
Iberian, 3rd century BC, The Great Lady Offerant
Vettonian culture, 3rd - 1st century BC, they think these granite animals marked grazing territory
Celtiberian culture, 2nd - 1st century BC, a familiar tool
Lusitanian culture, 3rd - 2nd century BC, silver and gilded silver
Bronze Bull from Costitx, 5th - 3rd century BC
Livia, wife of Emperor Augustus, from Paestum, Italy
This is what we looked like after spending too much time in the archaeology museum, Roman mosaic, of course, The Genius of the Year, late 2nd century
Rooster from the Greek collection
Gate that we are too lazy to bother to identify
An overdone monster in Madrid
Plaza Mayor
Palace Real, another one where the architects went all berserk
Thursday 26 March 2015
Travel Day
Today we reluctantly left Extremadura and drove to Toledo to drop the rental car. We then walked to the train station and got the train to Madrid. Once in Madrid, we walked just over few kilometres from the train station to our apartment.
After hanging around in the countryside in Spain and staying in villages and small cities, Madrid is busy, noisy and full of people on foot. But there is quite a lot of interesting architecture here.
We had no difficulty in getting to our apartment as John had put our route into the handheld GPS, if he had not done so, we would be doomed. We are staying well away from the centre of the city as the Spaniards in Madrid are known to stay out late and the noise level can be unreal. But we are in a great location, close to everything we want to see.
We headed out to get a few groceries and then had our usual cava and dinner. Tomorrow we plan to visit the archaeology museum and who knows what else.
No photos for today, all you could get are pics of a few turtles, well, more than a few, a tonne of them live in a pond in the Madrid train station.
After hanging around in the countryside in Spain and staying in villages and small cities, Madrid is busy, noisy and full of people on foot. But there is quite a lot of interesting architecture here.
We had no difficulty in getting to our apartment as John had put our route into the handheld GPS, if he had not done so, we would be doomed. We are staying well away from the centre of the city as the Spaniards in Madrid are known to stay out late and the noise level can be unreal. But we are in a great location, close to everything we want to see.
We headed out to get a few groceries and then had our usual cava and dinner. Tomorrow we plan to visit the archaeology museum and who knows what else.
No photos for today, all you could get are pics of a few turtles, well, more than a few, a tonne of them live in a pond in the Madrid train station.
Wednesday 25 March 2015
Guadalupe: another day, another monastery
Yesterday, we had an exceptional evening with the owners of the apartment we are staying in. They are a Dutch and Brazilian couple who completely restored a building in Trujillo, in which they live and operate six apartment units. I guess one would categorise it as an aparthotel, as we get daily cleaning, as well as a great little kitchen that is well stocked with everything we need.
They served us some really flavourful snacks from the Extremadura area as well as a local wine. The conversation was most enjoyable as they lead very interesting and busy lives. They provided a lot of insight into Spanish culture, as they are also raising two kids here in Spain. As this is our last day in Extremadura, they suggested we visit Guadalupe and since there is also a nice walk into the hills outside of the town, it was perfect for us.
What is most fascinating about the landscape of Extremadura is how it changes within a very short distance from Trujillo. About an hour of driving has taken us into varying scenery, as was the situation today. The mountains near Guadalupe are not huge, but there is a lot of large pine trees as well as cork oak.
The walk started in the square in front of the absolutely huge monastery in Guadalupe, there are tours in Spanish, but we opted to walk into the countryside. Guadalupe is quite tourist oriented but there were not many people about. A market was taking place along one of the streets we had to walk down, so we had to navigate past reams of clothing, shoes, candy, fish, cheese, meat, vegetables, brick-a-brack and we even spotted some super chicken feeders which we would have snapped up if it was even remotely possible to fit them into our luggage.
The Spanish appear to have a bit of a fixation with candy, just on our street in Trujillo, there are two bulk candy shops and the market in Guadalupe had two vendors selling bulk candy as well. Our hosts confirmed that, much to their chagrin, candy is handed out to kids on a consistent basis.
Our walk took us over the Viaduct of Guadalupe, the viaduct is huge and very long. It was built in 1959 as part of a project to link the towns with a railway, but the entire project was abandoned in 1962. We then walked up a track to the Hermitage of San Blas which was built in the early 16th century; however, it has been so heavily restored, I would not consider it a historical building. It is on a pilgrim route to the monastery in Guadalupe.
Our next destination on this walk was the Hermitage of Santa Catalina, also 16th century but heavily restored. The hermitage sits at the crossroads of some old roads that led into the area, also on a pilgrimage route. It commands a good view of the valley and the mountains. We stopped here for lunch and watched the gigantic ants and slender little lizards, which would run right across our legs.
The path then headed back down to the village through a tall pine forest with the fresh scent of pine in the air. It was a sunny but cool day with a bit of wind, a fine day for a short walk.
After a café con leche in the square, we drove back to Trujillo. It is farewell to Extremadura tomorrow, as we drive to Toledo to drop the car and then we will take the high speed train to Madrid, and spend a couple of nights there.
They served us some really flavourful snacks from the Extremadura area as well as a local wine. The conversation was most enjoyable as they lead very interesting and busy lives. They provided a lot of insight into Spanish culture, as they are also raising two kids here in Spain. As this is our last day in Extremadura, they suggested we visit Guadalupe and since there is also a nice walk into the hills outside of the town, it was perfect for us.
What is most fascinating about the landscape of Extremadura is how it changes within a very short distance from Trujillo. About an hour of driving has taken us into varying scenery, as was the situation today. The mountains near Guadalupe are not huge, but there is a lot of large pine trees as well as cork oak.
The walk started in the square in front of the absolutely huge monastery in Guadalupe, there are tours in Spanish, but we opted to walk into the countryside. Guadalupe is quite tourist oriented but there were not many people about. A market was taking place along one of the streets we had to walk down, so we had to navigate past reams of clothing, shoes, candy, fish, cheese, meat, vegetables, brick-a-brack and we even spotted some super chicken feeders which we would have snapped up if it was even remotely possible to fit them into our luggage.
The Spanish appear to have a bit of a fixation with candy, just on our street in Trujillo, there are two bulk candy shops and the market in Guadalupe had two vendors selling bulk candy as well. Our hosts confirmed that, much to their chagrin, candy is handed out to kids on a consistent basis.
Our walk took us over the Viaduct of Guadalupe, the viaduct is huge and very long. It was built in 1959 as part of a project to link the towns with a railway, but the entire project was abandoned in 1962. We then walked up a track to the Hermitage of San Blas which was built in the early 16th century; however, it has been so heavily restored, I would not consider it a historical building. It is on a pilgrim route to the monastery in Guadalupe.
Our next destination on this walk was the Hermitage of Santa Catalina, also 16th century but heavily restored. The hermitage sits at the crossroads of some old roads that led into the area, also on a pilgrimage route. It commands a good view of the valley and the mountains. We stopped here for lunch and watched the gigantic ants and slender little lizards, which would run right across our legs.
The path then headed back down to the village through a tall pine forest with the fresh scent of pine in the air. It was a sunny but cool day with a bit of wind, a fine day for a short walk.
After a café con leche in the square, we drove back to Trujillo. It is farewell to Extremadura tomorrow, as we drive to Toledo to drop the car and then we will take the high speed train to Madrid, and spend a couple of nights there.
Guadalupe monastery
Guadalupe viaduct
Viaduct
Hermitage of San Blas
Mountains behind Guadalupe
View of Guadalupe
This view demonstrates the size of the monastery
Hermitage of Santa Catalina
View of pine forest and mountains in the distance
Tuesday 24 March 2015
La Vera
We drove back to the La Vera area for the walk we could not go on yesterday. As we watched, the clouds lifted from the Sierra de Gredos prior to our arrival, it proved to be a great day for a walk. The walk started just outside the small historical village of Garganta La Olla. In this area, garganta means ‘torrent’ or ‘pass between mountains’ while olla means pot; the river runs through the village and the village is located in a setting that is surrounded by treed mountains.
Overlooking the village of Garganta La Olla is Serrana de la Vera, or Mountain Woman of la Vera, along with a sign board in Spanish which tells of her legend. In the middle ages, after a dispute regarding marriage, she fled into the mountains. She was armed with weapons and would seduce men, then kill them and leave their bones in her cave. Interestingly, the village celebrates a Serrana day.
After having a look at the striking statue of Serrana de la Vera, we started out on our walk over the hills to the Yuste Monastery. The Yuste Monastery is where Charles V wanted to live out the last years of his life. He was unwell; therefore, he gave up his reign and travelled to the La Vera, but prior to residing at Yuste, he travelled to Jarandilla de la Vera to stay in the castle while the monks in Yuste prepared for his arrival. He was carried over the mountains to live in Yuste and died there within a couple of years. The two journeys are celebrated annually with walks in which thousands of people attend.
As we don’t have much of an interest in monasteries, we just had a look into the garden and then sat on a bench and had a bit of our lunch with the view of the monastery before us. It is located in a very picturesque setting.
Just down the road from the monastery is a German war cemetery with soldiers who fell in Spain during both world wars. The cemetery is in a lovely area with olive trees and is well cared for. We then continued on our route back to Garganta La Olla.
The La Vera area is known for the production of paprika, they also have numerous cherry orchards and raspberry patches which are grown under plastic tunnels. The gorgeous cherry trees are just beginning to bloom.
When we trudged up into the village, we dropped into the plaza and had a café con leche. Then we dropped into a shop, a very rare event for us, and picked up some smoked paprika.
The village has ancient 17th and 18th century houses, with the upper levels cantilevered over the very narrow streets, this gives the village an interesting aspect which we have not seen prior to this.
We carried on up to where the car was parked but stopped in at a nice spot on the rocks to sit by the river to eat the remainder of our lunch, while watching the water come down some small falls. The water has worn small pools in the rocks, and the locals frequent this area in the summer for a swim. After getting back to the car we drove through a few more of the small villages then headed back to Trujillo, passing through a few rain showers on the way.
Overlooking the village of Garganta La Olla is Serrana de la Vera, or Mountain Woman of la Vera, along with a sign board in Spanish which tells of her legend. In the middle ages, after a dispute regarding marriage, she fled into the mountains. She was armed with weapons and would seduce men, then kill them and leave their bones in her cave. Interestingly, the village celebrates a Serrana day.
After having a look at the striking statue of Serrana de la Vera, we started out on our walk over the hills to the Yuste Monastery. The Yuste Monastery is where Charles V wanted to live out the last years of his life. He was unwell; therefore, he gave up his reign and travelled to the La Vera, but prior to residing at Yuste, he travelled to Jarandilla de la Vera to stay in the castle while the monks in Yuste prepared for his arrival. He was carried over the mountains to live in Yuste and died there within a couple of years. The two journeys are celebrated annually with walks in which thousands of people attend.
As we don’t have much of an interest in monasteries, we just had a look into the garden and then sat on a bench and had a bit of our lunch with the view of the monastery before us. It is located in a very picturesque setting.
Just down the road from the monastery is a German war cemetery with soldiers who fell in Spain during both world wars. The cemetery is in a lovely area with olive trees and is well cared for. We then continued on our route back to Garganta La Olla.
The La Vera area is known for the production of paprika, they also have numerous cherry orchards and raspberry patches which are grown under plastic tunnels. The gorgeous cherry trees are just beginning to bloom.
When we trudged up into the village, we dropped into the plaza and had a café con leche. Then we dropped into a shop, a very rare event for us, and picked up some smoked paprika.
The village has ancient 17th and 18th century houses, with the upper levels cantilevered over the very narrow streets, this gives the village an interesting aspect which we have not seen prior to this.
We carried on up to where the car was parked but stopped in at a nice spot on the rocks to sit by the river to eat the remainder of our lunch, while watching the water come down some small falls. The water has worn small pools in the rocks, and the locals frequent this area in the summer for a swim. After getting back to the car we drove through a few more of the small villages then headed back to Trujillo, passing through a few rain showers on the way.
Serrana de la Vera
Village of Garganta la Olla
Succession of 12 Granite water troughs
View from high point of the trail
Yuste Monastery
German war cemetary
Garganta la Olla buildings
Our lunch spot
Monday 23 March 2015
Monfrague and Caceres
Monfrague
We took off early today to drive north to La Vera for a walk. La Vera is a beautiful area with small historic villages near the Sierra de Gredos. Many of the villages had de la Vera added to their name, meaning of the Vera. Just as we arrived at the trail head it began to pour rain so we had to abandon the walk and move on to plan B. It is always necessary to have alternate plans when travelling. We stopped at one of the small towns and had the usual in a nice little bar which was full of locals escaping the rain.
We drove back a bit to the south to Monfrague National Park, which is known as the home of more birds of prey than anywhere else in Europe. Even impatient people who race around while travelling can spot birds of prey, this was the place for us.
The area is quite beautiful, the rivers Tietar and Tajo meet in this park, there are also some interesting small hills. We went on a nice little 7.5 km walk which brought us to a birding lookout known as Cerro Gimio, which we had to ourselves until a few Spanish people came up, so we left the lookout for them, and walked back to the parking lot.
As we were driving down the highway, I started gaping at some nice rock formations along the river and told John we needed to stop and hopefully there was a pull-out to do so. There was a viewing area along the highway with a few cars parked. What a surprise we got when we left the car, looked up and saw a flock of birds of prey soaring against the backdrop of an extraordinarily blue sky. It was one of those moments, absolutely stunning and something to behold. I just stood there and gawked while John took photos.
After we were quite well satisfied with our ‘birding’ experience for the day, we decided we could jam in another destination and drove on to the historic city of Caceres.
Caceres
We parked quite a long way from the walls of the old city and walked to the Plaza Mayor where our walk began. We were lagging a bit so we re-fuelled with a café con leche outside on the plaza. Caceres has a tremendous ancient area inside old city walls. What is most fascinating, are the small plazas that practically link together between medieval buildings, it is a 16th century city.
Our walk was rather rushed as it got cold and windy, it looked like we were going to get a thunderstorm, luckily the storm just missed Caceres. We pretty much raced around the narrow streets and small plazas looking at all the buildings. We then walked back to the car, which we found easily as John had the brainwave recently, to pinpoint the location of the car on a handheld GPS, so we can find our way back.
We took off early today to drive north to La Vera for a walk. La Vera is a beautiful area with small historic villages near the Sierra de Gredos. Many of the villages had de la Vera added to their name, meaning of the Vera. Just as we arrived at the trail head it began to pour rain so we had to abandon the walk and move on to plan B. It is always necessary to have alternate plans when travelling. We stopped at one of the small towns and had the usual in a nice little bar which was full of locals escaping the rain.
We drove back a bit to the south to Monfrague National Park, which is known as the home of more birds of prey than anywhere else in Europe. Even impatient people who race around while travelling can spot birds of prey, this was the place for us.
The area is quite beautiful, the rivers Tietar and Tajo meet in this park, there are also some interesting small hills. We went on a nice little 7.5 km walk which brought us to a birding lookout known as Cerro Gimio, which we had to ourselves until a few Spanish people came up, so we left the lookout for them, and walked back to the parking lot.
As we were driving down the highway, I started gaping at some nice rock formations along the river and told John we needed to stop and hopefully there was a pull-out to do so. There was a viewing area along the highway with a few cars parked. What a surprise we got when we left the car, looked up and saw a flock of birds of prey soaring against the backdrop of an extraordinarily blue sky. It was one of those moments, absolutely stunning and something to behold. I just stood there and gawked while John took photos.
After we were quite well satisfied with our ‘birding’ experience for the day, we decided we could jam in another destination and drove on to the historic city of Caceres.
Caceres
We parked quite a long way from the walls of the old city and walked to the Plaza Mayor where our walk began. We were lagging a bit so we re-fuelled with a café con leche outside on the plaza. Caceres has a tremendous ancient area inside old city walls. What is most fascinating, are the small plazas that practically link together between medieval buildings, it is a 16th century city.
Our walk was rather rushed as it got cold and windy, it looked like we were going to get a thunderstorm, luckily the storm just missed Caceres. We pretty much raced around the narrow streets and small plazas looking at all the buildings. We then walked back to the car, which we found easily as John had the brainwave recently, to pinpoint the location of the car on a handheld GPS, so we can find our way back.
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