Valencia - Home of paella

After leaving Madrid, we headed 3hrs to Valencia on the east coast of Spain. On arriving in Valencia you straight away sense that it is very different to Madrid. It has a much less grand feel to the place, on top of being a lot more enclosed. The city like many in Spain is centred on the old centre, with the important old buildings and more traditional architecture. It then had the business and residential areas surrounding the old centre, with the famous Science park located on the outskirts of this region.

Valencia City Hall

 Valencia is the city that many people living in Madrid go to when they want to visit the beach. This is easy to see why when seeing their many long stretches of beaches, none of which are too over crowded with the usual tourist throngs.

Nice sandy beach with hardly anyone there!

Valencia as a city has a lot to offer, it has some really nice sights, some world famous museums, nice sandy beaches, good climate, great food and an ideal base to visit a few different places nearby, including Madrid and Barcelona (3 and 4 hours away by train respectively). We did most of these things whilst in Valencia, and would strongly recommend anyone doing them if they visit the city.

Most importantly though, whilst in Valencia there is one thing that everyone should do; try Paella! Whether you are a fan of rice dishes or not, I would recommend to still try it. Paella is Valencia's regional dish and one of their identifying symbols. There are two main types of Paella, seafood paella (paella de marisco) and Valencian Paella (paella valenciana). The one we tried was of course Valencian paella. We went to the restaurant La Cigrona, which is supposedly one of the best places to eat paella in Valencia. It is made with rice, chicken, rabbit, beans and green vegetables, with seasoning and cooked in plenty of oil. All in all a truely delicious combination, we just wished we had bigger appetites as the portions were huge!

Two huge plates of paella valenciana

Apart from Paella though the old city centre is a great place to go. Key highlights being the cathedral, the silk exchange (La Lonja de la Seda), which is an UNESCO world heritage site where silk used to be traded up to 500 years ago, although the interior is the only original part of the building. The towers (Torres de Quart and Torres de Serrano), which used to be part of the ancient city wall are also worth a visit, and you can even climb them (for a fee) to get some nice views over the old centre.

Torres de Serrano from the outside

Whilst in Valencia we also thought we would do something we hadn't done for a long time; go for a bike ride! To hire a bike for 24hrs cost us only 9 Euros a piece. It was a great feeling to be back on a bike again after being off of one for over 2 months, although I might add, not as nice as being on our own trusty bikes! We cycled around the centre of the city going through the Jardines de Turia, which is a 9km long garden that used to be a river before being converted into a beautiful garden. It runs past some lovely sites along the way including, Palau de la Musica and City of Art and Sciences.

City of Arts and Sciences

 We continued cycling outside of the city itself as well and went to visit the nearby Albufera Natural Park (where in a small village, paella originated from). It was a nice ride once outside of the city and had some nice views along the coast and across a huge lake located right in the centre of the Natural Park. Unfortunately for us by the time we reached the lake it had started getting extremely windy and some rain was starting to fall so we decided to turn around and head back, cutting our cycle ride short a little bit. But we still made use of the bikes the next day as we had them up until midday, so that we could visit the university and see a bit more of the northern part of the city.

Carmen happy to be back on a bike and no knee pain!

The last thing we did in Valencia was a day trip to a nearby town called Xativa (or Jativa), where there is located a nice castle on top of a hill, which has some stunning views of the nearby area. Xativa is located about an hour south of Valencia by train and is supposedly one of the hottest parts of the country in summer!

Xativa Castle

It is a long walk up to the castle from the train station, through the town centre and up some winding roads, but once getting to the top the views are well worth the effort (you can go up by tourist train if you are feeling lazy). The castle is over 1000 years old and has a lot of history behind it, swapping hands between the Moors and Valencians 4 times in a 200 year period.We spent several hours there exploring its different sections before making our way back to the train station.

The view from Xativa Castle

This ended our stay in Valencia, but our next stop was the island of Mallorca!

Madrid - The Royal Capital (Part 2)

Whilst we were staying in Madrid, the festival of San Isidro was taking place. This is the main festival in Madrid and it is celebrated every year on the week around the 15th May. San Isidro is the patron saint of Madrid hence the reason why it is their most important celebration. 

There were many events going on during the week to celebrate the festival in the main plazas. Highlights for us included a free opera in the main square (Plaza Mayor), which was really interesting for us, as neither of us had seen an opera before. They sang many traditional songs in Spanish, which the crowd sometimes joined in on too, giving the whole event a really nice atmosphere. The thing that impressed me the most about it, is the fact that you can really feel the emotion in the voices of the singers, which then transmits itself to the audience. Wandering the streets after the opera we were also able to see many locals dressed in traditional outfits from years ago. This gave an authentic feel to everything that was going on, until we hit the main tourist street, where locals are selling bags, sunglasses and other various items on the street, always on the lookout incase a policeman is about.

Traditional Castillo dress

Near us across at the El Retiro park, which is like two minutes walk from where we stayed, they had a huge firework display on three of the nights of San Isidro. We told the guys we were staying with (Camilo and Daniel) about it and they decided to join us to see it as well. It was spectacular and lasted for nearly 20 minutes, it was a really nice way to end the day.

The lake in El Retiro

There are so many things to see in Madrid, you just don't feel like you have the time to see them all. The best way though to experience the city in my opinion though is to just walk around it and enjoy the many sites. Gran Via is the famous road where you can find all sorts of different shops, restaurants, bars and cafes, it is very much like Oxford Street in London. The other two main squares in Madrid are Plaza de Espana and Puerta del Sol, of which Puerta del Sol was our favourite, as it was bustling with activity at all hours of day and night with street performers, commuters, tourists, students and retired people, it also featured a statue of a bear eating from a strawberry tree, officially named El Oso y El Madrono. This is because apparently the land used to be called Ursaria (meaning 'Land of Bears' in latin), due to the large amount of them in the area and the local tree (Madrono). Unfortunately there are no bears left in the region and only one wild bear in the whole of Spain.

Carmen trying to steal the strawberries from the bear

Of particular interest when visiting Madrid is to go and see Palacio Real, which is next door to the cathedral. The palace was the residence of Carlos III and was also famous as it was the place where they signed the papers to become a member of the European Union. Upon entering the Palace entrance, you are greeted by a huge open courtyard, in which you could probably fit a whole football pitch. Looking to your left you can see the cathedral towering over the wall, looking very grand and impressive.

The Cathedral next to the Palacio Real

Palacio Real from the outside

Going into the palace building itself you are met with a wide staircase, and on the ceiling, high above you are beautiful paintings. This really sets the tone for what you encounter as you step through the palace. Each room is decorated uniquely, with its own theme, and it is truely magnificient to see. You were able to see a vast majority of the rooms, including the royal quarters, throne room, dining room, chapel and several different bedrooms and waiting rooms. You also went through rooms dedicated to a small sort of museum on weapons and armour from the 1700s. Unfortunately for us you are unable to take pictures inside the palace, so we are not able to show how beautiful it was, except for one sneaky little picture we were able to capture without the guards seeing!

Our very sneakily taken picture inside the Palacio Real

I was also lucky enough whilst in Madrid to meet up with another friend we had met earlier in our travels in Spain, this time a guy from Mexico named Efrain. Unfortunately Carmen was unable to come as she wasn't feeling so well on that day, but she did make it out later in the week to go see the biggest game of the season in the Spanish La Liga between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to decide the winner of the league. Luckily for us Atletico Madrid did just enough to draw the match, meaning that they won the league, and that meant that everyone was happy as Daniel and Camilo the guys we were staying with both supported Atletico Madrid.

One of our favourite times in Madrid though included something a little bit different from the usual; we went to visit the Zoo! This was quite a novelty for us both as neither of us had been to the zoo since we were very young. It also felt good to do as it was different to everything else we had so far done in our travels. It was a wonderful day and we had great fun seeing all the different animals, (6000 in total of 500 different species). The main attraction and our favourite part of the zoo was without a doubt the pandas. They are so cute and fluffy it's unbelievable, you cannot help but fall in love with them.

The new born baby panda sleeping in a tree

The other great thing about the zoo is the fact that they also had shows that people could go to watch at different times throughout the day. We saw birds of prey and exotic birds flying just over the tops of peoples heads in one exhibition. We also saw sea-lions doing balancing tricks, clapping and making rude noises at everyone, but our favourite show was definitely the dolphins. They did a spectacular show, jumping out of the water, going through hoops and synchronising with each other. It was astonishing to see just how high they could leap out of the water, it was almost as if they could fly! The instructor even went in the water with them and was launched into the air by the dolphins as well; really impressive!

The dolphins leaping over the instructor

That pretty much concluded our trip in Madrid, which we were sad to be leaving as we had thoroughly enjoyed it, it was one of the places we could have seen ourselves living in.

Just as an aside note, I might add that Atocha train station in Madrid is the only station that I have so far encountered that houses a tropical garden inside it! It is easy to identify Atocha train station as it has two huge babies heads carved out of rock outside of it!

Carmen with one of the freaky baby heads

Madrid - The Royal Capital (Part 1)

We had finally come to Madrid, the capital and largest city in Spain, and the third largest in the European Union after London and Berlin. It has a population in the city of around 3.5 million and 6.5 million in the metropolitan area. It is also the seat of the Spanish government and the residence of the Spanish monarch, who at the time was Juan Carlos I. Funnily enough however the day after we left Madrid he abdicated and his son Felipe VI took over as King of Spain.

City Hall by night

Arriving in Madrid we were met by a good family friend of mine who lives in the suburbs of Madrid. He very kindly gave us a lift from the bus station to where we were staying in a really nice central part of the city, next to the main park, El Retiro. The apartment we were staying in was being rented by a couple of Chilean guys we met in Sevilla, where they had very kindly invited us to stay with them when we visited Madrid. It was a nice apartment and we felt very comfortable there straight away.

We were staying in Madrid for 8 nights, so it gave us plenty of time to look around the city, but also to do day trips to places around the city, as there are some beautiful towns and cities around Madrid. We ended up going to two different places. The first of these was Toledo, about 70km south of Madrid. To get there Mariano my family friend was kind enough to take us there by car with his partner Cristina who also knows my family and show us around the city.

Us with Mariano on the left

Toledo is known as the Imperial City as it was used as the main court for Charles I. It is also very popular with tourists, so it was quite crowded, which was a down side to Toledo, but it is a lovely medieval city, with loads of beautiful buildings and views, as Toledo is situated on top of a hill. We were also told Toledo is very famous for its armour and swords, as well as ceramics. Evidence of this was on display wherever we went, with lots of shops selling armour and swords. Unfortunately we couldn't really carry around a sword with us whilst traveling!

Carmen with a suit of armour in Toledo

The city has lots of churches, this is partly due to being a city in the past of three different cultures with religious buildings from Christians, Muslims and Jews. The main highlight of these was the cathedral. However there are many more beautiful sites in Toledo like the city walls and the gates to the city, but also including the Alcazar and the covered escalator (apparently the London eye of Toledo). Additionally whilst in Toledo there were lots of exhibits going on containing works by El Greco who lived in Toledo whilst he created many of his mature works. It turned out to be a lovely day and it was sad to say goodbye to them both at the end of the day.

The Alcazar of Toledo

El Escorial was our other day trip, this time going 45km northwest of Madrid by train. San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a Royal Site and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum and school. It was built on the orders of Philip II of Spain, designed by him and a leading architect from Italy. When arriving and seeing the Royal Monastery, the first thing that hits you is the sheer size of the place, it is huge. Upon entering you further discover that it is even bigger than you first thought as you begin your journey beneath the monastery, looking at its history and how it was constructed and the tools that were used to construct it. It would especially be of interest to an architect due to the numerous technical drawings of the building.

El Escorial Royal Monastery from afar

You then move on to see the ground floor and you become awed by the size of the main corridors, which tower over your head with beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings. You could imagine the monks who previously inhabited the place walking through these vast corridors in solemn silence, contemplating the religious art. You then move on to the Pantheon of the Kings, where you can see 26 tombs containing the remains of previous Kings and Queens and their children.

Inside the Pantheon of the Kings

The most amazing part of the whole Royal Monastery for us was the Hall of Battles. A huge room on the top floor of the palace section of the Monastery where on the walls are depicted famous military victories from Spanish history, including some of Philip's against the French, in floor to ceiling paintings along the length of the whole room (although more like a corridor). The detail and the sheer size of the pieces of artwork was amazing, especially the way they joined pieces together, so well done that you could not tell where one painting ended and the next begun. Last but not least you visit the library of El Escorial. The library is very grand and royally decorated, however it does have a used feeling to the room, as though Philip came to the room often and used to study (which he actually did). This ended our tour of El Escorial, but not before getting a nice shot of the Monstery before we left (below).

The view from the exit of the Royal Monastery

Back in Madrid there were many sites to see just by walking around and admiring the city, but one of the main draws for tourists to the capital is the Golden Triangle of Art, which includes; Prado Museum, Reina Sofia Museum of modern art and Thyssen-Bornemisza museum. We visited each of these museums during the week we were there, each time for free and saw works by some very famous artists, including Rembrandt, El Greco, Picasso, Dali, Rafael, Van Gogh, Goya and Rubens. I'm sure there were many more, but these were some of the main ones I recognised. My favourite paintings there included some works by Rafael and the Black Paintings by Goya. Unfortunately I am not a great art coniseur so although I recognised that they were great paintings, I was not able to appreciate them properly, and did not spend excessive time at any of the Art museums as for me and Carmen it started to get a bit repetitive. (Oh and here's another painting!)

Outside Prado Museum

This concludes part 1, but stay tuned for part 2!

Heavily fortified cities and a fairytale castle in Ávila and Segovia

After leaving the Golden City of Salamanca with a very high opinion of it, our next destinations had a lot to try and live up to. Our first stop was Ávila, a town famous for its walls, which completely surround the whole of the centre of the town, a perimeter of 2.5km, including 88 towers, 9 gates and an average height of 12m. They are huge! We did a walk around these magnificent Romanesque syle walls and it is stunning to see just how well preserved they are, it's almost as though you were walking by them 1000 years ago when they were first built.

Beautiful view of Ávila from Los Cuatro (The Four) Postes landmark, just outside the town

View from just outside the walls

Built into the walls of the town is the Cathedral, which is one of the main attractions of the town, and is considered fairly unique due to the fact that its east side forms part of the walls of the town, being part fortress and part cathedral.

The fortress Cathedrals east side that forms part of the town walls

The Cathedral north side and entrance

 Many of the buildings within the town were constructed at various times throughout the middle ages in very similar styles to the walls, giving the whole town a very medieval feel to it. The difference between Ávila and Caceres, which we previously visited beforehand, was the fact that Ávila was a bit more touristy and busy, it felt like it had a bit more life in it. We strolled for several hours through the streets of Ávila enjoying this feeling and seeing all the medieval buildings.

Convento de Santa Teresa

Whilst we were strolling around we visited the Convento de Santa Teresa (pictured above). This convent/church is quite important in the town of Ávila as it plays a central role in the Fiestas de Santa Teresa (Festival of Saint Teresa), which takes place throughout nearly the whole month of October, including; concerts, processions, bullfights, and of course eating. This is a festival that is only celebrated in the area around Ávila. The Convent of Saint Teresa however is also famous in Ávila for a sweet made out of egg yolk, called Yemas de Santa Teresa, which used to be made by the nuns of the convent hundreds of years ago to sell to locals to raise money for the convent. Egg yolk was used because the nuns had lots of spare egg yolk around, due to always needing egg whites to starch their habits.

Yemas de Santa Teresa

The other place that stood out for us whilst strolling around, mainly due to its vibrancy and life, was Plaza Mayor and the market place at the very heart of the town. Here was where everyone was going about selling their locally made and grown food, shouting out about their special deals and high quality, it felt a bit like being back in a Medina in Morocco. Carmen got especially excited when she spotted some cherries for a really good price and had to snatch them up.

The market in Plaza Mayor

We had only one day in Ávila and it was enough we felt to explore the town and see some of the local life, we got an early night in preparation for an early start the next day to allow us time to visit Segovia before we caught a bus in the evening to get to Madrid!

Segovia is a truly beautiful town with lots of amazing bits of architecture to see from various periods throughout history. It actually turned out to be one of our favourite places in Spain, and I am sure you will agree with us once you see just how beautiful it is.

A little taster of the town

Arriving in Segovia we were greeted by a parade of people dressed up in military dress from medieval times and from the 20th century. They were playing music and marching up and down the high street attracting attention from everyone, especially when they would stop periodically and the leader of the group would shout out a phrase in Spanish for all to hear. Unfortunately we were never able to work out what exactly the parade was meant to signify, even after research on the internet. However it did make for a lively introduction to the town.

The parade down the high street

The parade finished at the bottom of the high street right beneath the aqueduct, which was made an UNESCO world heritage site in 1985 along with the old town of Segovia. The aqueduct is a marvel of of Roman civil engineering, considered to be the most important in the whole of Spain. Built in the 1st century AD, spanning 818 meters in length and 29 meters in height, made of 25,000 granite blocks held together without any mortar, with more than 170 arches, it is incredible. It's seeing things like this built nearly 2000 years ago with limited tools and machinery that makes you really admire it and wonder how they could possibly manage to do it.

The 2000 year old Roman aqueduct

The aqueduct however is just the beginning of this beautiful town, our next stop was the Segovia Cathedral, named 'The Lady of Cathedrals', which was the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain. It is considered a masterpiece and it is easy to see why, with lots of mini spires all over the exterior of the cathedral reaching towards the sky, and a huge main spire towering over the top, reaching 90 metres in height it certainly stands out on the horizon, as can be seen by the first photo from Segovia above. Located in Plaza Mayor it makes a great backdrop for everyone going about their business and eating outside from the many restaurants and bars in the area, as well as some nice pasteleria's, one of which we bought a chocolate filled pastry from, supposedly traditional at Easter.

The Lady of Cathedral's

 The last of the big three attractions in Segovia is the Alcazar, built nearly 1000 years ago on top of a rock between two rivers, at the very end of the town, with amazing views over the land below and the nearby mountains. It is often referred to as a Disneyland castle due to its pointed towers and very picturesque style. Not only is the castle very picturesque from the outside, it also has beautiful interiors, decorated very grandly, suitable for the Kings of Castile, who favoured it as a residence (as I also certainly would had I been king). The castle has a lot of history behind it, formerly used as the home of the royal court, the residence of Isabella the Catholic, the site of the wedding of Phillip II, the home of the Spanish Artillery Academy, and currently as a museum and home of the Spanish General Military Archive. Unfortunately inside the castle it was very crowded, with lots of groups going round on tours. We kept trying to escape them but didn't get away with it.

The Alcazar looking like a castle out of Disneyland

The Alcazar from the front entrance

 To finish off our trip to Segovia we thought we would do something a bit different. We decided to visit a food museum. We were first shown a video about what food is grown in the area and how it is produced, which lasted about 15 minutes before then being allowed to taste some really special Jamon, cheese and wine, with some bread. All of which I found delicious, except for the cheese (I don't like cheese unfortunately, but Carmen did like it). We then looked around the museum, which was really interesting because it told you about the history of food growth and production in the area. We were surprised to see just how much food was produced in the region of Segovia.

Our Jamon, cheese and wine

 After filling ourselves up with this little treat we were ready to leave; next stop, Madrid, where we would meet up with several friends.

Salamanca - The Golden City

Salamanca is a truly beautiful city, the buildings constructed of sandstone, which, when the sun sets makes the buildings look a beautiful gold colour, which has led to the nickname La Dorada (The Golden City). It is a student city, so similar in many ways to Granada in the south of Spain, however there is a difference. Salamanca university is one of the oldest universities in Europe and oldest in Spain, founded in 1218, and was even the first in Western Europe to be given its status by Pope Alexander IV.

Casa das Conchas - famous house in Salamanca decorated with 530 shells

The university buildings are built out of the same sandstone as all the other buildings in the historic centre of Salamanca, which is in fact a UNESCO world heritage site. The university attracts thousands of students from around the globe giving the city a very diverse feel to it. It is also the leading Spanish language teaching university in Spain, making it a popular spot for people to go to learn Spanish.

The main entrance to the University

The university is divided up into lots of separate buildings spread throughout the historic centre, called colleges, very similar to the Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. Having the same sense of grandeur and old traditions. We visited many of these buildings and even went inside one or two to see some beautiful courtyards and Hogwarts like interiors.

Plaza Mayor - the main square in Salamanca

One key highlight was the Sky of Salamanca, which is through a door off of the Escuelas Menores courtyard. It is in a very dimly lit room, and as you approach you look up and see a domed ceiling painted pale blue and covered in gold stars. It is part of a 15th-century painting that covered part of the ceiling of the university library and is apparently a view of the astrological heavens from that period.

The Escuelas Menores courtyard

There are many religious buildings scattered all over Salamanca's historic centre, but the ones that stand out the most and is different to most other Spanish cities is its Cathedral, or should I say two cathedrals. One built in the 12th century in Romanesque style and the newer one, right next door started in the 16th century and completed in the 18th century, built in Gothic style. The two cathedrals are actually joined and where the two cathedrals join it is called Patio Chico, a really lovely spot.

The new Cathedral

Of the other religious buildings, I thought I would mention one that looked really nice and was quite impressive, which was the Convento de San Esteban, which is a Dominican Monastery built between 1524 and 1610. It is situated in Plaza del Concilio not far from the cathedrals.

Carmen with Concento de San Esteban in the background

In contrast with the sandstone buildings of Salamanca there is a Roman bridge built in the 1st century BC across the river, which supposedly used to join a Roman road that led all the way south to Merida. It is still used today and is in very good condition.

Carmen on the Roman bridge

Although Salamanca is inundated with religious buildings and has a very positive history, there is also a darker side to Salamanca, a side we did not expect. There is a place within Salamanca's historic centre known as, El Cueva del Diablo, otherwise known in English as The Cave of the Devil. The name is actually a bit misleading as it is not in fact a cave but instead the crypt of the ruined 12th century church San Ciprian. According to the legends it was here that the Devil taught spells and black magic to 7 students for 7 years. There are several different accounts of what form the Devil took whilst teaching these students, the main ones being the caretaker of the ruined church, a hand on a chair, and a male goat. The cost for the students to learn from the Devil was one human soul. After they had studied for 7 years, they then had to draw lots to see which of them would give up his soul and spend the rest of his life in service to the Devil in the crypt.  It was a fascinating story and you could see why it had this reputation as parts of it were really very creepy.

The entrance to El Cueva del Diablo

On a more positive note Salamanca also has a very nice traditional food called a Hornazo, which is a essentially a meat pie filled with spicy chorizo sausage, pork loin and hard boiled egg. It may not be the healthiest of foods, but it is certainly a very tasty one! We would happily have had more of these if we were staying longer.

Delicious Hornazo

We were also lucky enough to meet a couple of people in the hostel we stayed in Salamanca, one a guy traveling around Spain and Portugal on a motorbike from the North coast of Wales and another a girl from Sydney, Australia who gave us some good advice about places to visit in Portugal. It was unfortunate we couldn't have stayed longer to chat with them more, but we had to move onwards. Next stops Avila and Segovia, ancient cities not far from Madrid.

Roman city of Merida vs Medieval city of Caceres

Merida was our first taste of Extremadura in Western Spain, and a very different taste it was to what we had seen so far. Merida is a gold mine for anyone with an interest in Roman ruins, the city is filled with them every place you look, and they are still unearthing more all the time. The thing that is even more impressive is how some of the ruins are quite well preserved, even after nearly 2000 years.

Carmen and her Roman friend

Our favourite by far being the Roman theatre where they still hold open-air theatre shows, concerts and festivals in front of crowds of several hundred people. The theatre is still really impressive and pretty well preserved. It makes you wonder just how impressive it would have looked in its heyday, they even had drawings of how they thought it would have looked and was very impressive to try and imagine.

The Roman Theatre

Whilst there we also learnt some interesting information about the seating plans and how knights, roman citizens, women, slaves and foriegners, veterans and soldiers and owners and important people were seperated in the theatre, each having there own little section where they sat, the more important having the better seats, the women actually having the worst seats! This, however, was different to the ampitheatre, where there was not really this division. The amphitheatre was next door to the theatre and there we learnt about several of the different types of gladiators that used to fight there and some of their training techniques, it was really fascinating.

Carmen at the Amphitheatre

One of the other Roman ruins that we visited whilst in Merida included the hippodrome (circo) where the chariot races took place. This place is huge. The races involved a 5km race around the hippodrome and took about 10mins (much quicker than I previously imagined). However it is not so well preserved as the theatre and ampitheatre, and due to it not being very protected from the sun we didn't spend so long there, as the temperatures were quite high in the mid 30's.

We also saw the Roman aqueduct that carried the water from the nearby mountains to the city centre and the ruins of the Roman baths where the men used to do sports and train naked in a central courtyard.

Merida additionally has a Moorish Alcazaba, constructed over where a Roman wall of the city used to be when they conquered the city in the late 800's. From atop the walls of the Alcazaba you had some lovely views of the Roman bridge, which is in fact the longest Roman bridge in Spain.

The longest Roman bridge in Spain

Our final pieces of Roman architecture we saw in Merida were the Temple to Diana and the Arch of Trajan, the arch especially being in very good shape, although not artistically speaking especially interesting to look at.

Me with Temple to Diana

Caceres in comparison is very different to Merida. Instead of all the Roman ruins you have medieval buildings everywhere in the old centre. Literally everything within the old centre is medieval, all the buildings; towers, churches, museums, hotels, houses and shops have been made out of the old palaces and other buildings. What makes it even better is that people actually live there. 

One of the many medieval churches in Caceres old centre

We just strolled around the whole place and it felt like stepping back in time with the narrow winding cobblestone streets and the crests above the doors of each building, all the buildings jam packed next to each other. This was until a car would squeeze past you, just about managing not to scrap their wing mirrors off as they pass between the buildings and around the sharp corners. We expected knights on horseback to come charging past at any time.

The narrow cobblestone streets of Caceres

Whilst wandering we also came across the museum of Caceres and there we saw traditional dress from medieval times, and some of the artefacts that they had discovered within the old centre. We also visited the cistern, which was very small and went inside one of the palaces, which was also interesting, as inside it has been modernised.

Carmen in Caceres

The really nice thing about both Merida and Caceres was the lack of tourists, it was not overcrowded and you didn't have people jumping in front of you taking pictures everywhere, it was a nice change.

Carmen by the exit of the old centre in Caceres

One additional thing  I just had to add to this post although it is not in either Merida or Caceres is that on heading out of Caceres by bus we went through a town called Plasencia and saw a really beautiful cathedral, which I just had to show here as well!

Plasencia Cathedral

See us arrive in Salamanca in our next post!