The many ages of women

We had agreed on a bit of a recovery day, so we slept in till about eight. We had not realised how the noise of Madrid had affected our sleeping. Trujillo is quiet, very quiet, or at least where we are it is. So we slept wonderfully. 

Whilst Marjan was showering, I went to check on the car. Trujillo looked magnificent floating on a sea of fog with blue skies and sunshine above. I did not have the camera, shock, so you will have to imagine it. We wandered into a bar for breakfast. Coffees and churros/porras and an orange juice. Almost every bar we go into has a juicer, so fresh orange juice is basically on tap. Also the bar belongs to Miguel's family, so we mentioned we did not have a clothes horse. By the time we had our coffee and walked back we had a clothes horse, powder and pegs.

We set off in the car for Merida, about and hour away. We drove through typical Extremeño countryside. Lovely forests of alcornoque (cork oaks), dry stone walls and the odd bit of livestock, interspersed with olive groves. Passing through a small range we dropped slowly into the Guadiana valley where it is obviously much more fertile as we were in serious agriculture business territory.

We parked along the river and crossed the Roman bridge into the main part of town. That was a 1k walk on its own. It is a great bridge. Roman women, Visigoth women, Moorish women, medieval women, and now modern spanish women have been crossing the Guadiana here for millennia....since about 15 BC.

We wandered through the town without aim for a while. Nice central square, not Plaza Mayor, lovely narrow streets. But eventually we made our way to the main Roman attraction. The amphitheatre and theatre. Like a few of the other Roman monuments, there has been of reconstruction using actually excavated remains. None the less it is very impressive. The amphitheatre does not match the Coliseum, but served a similar purpose. 

The theater was even more impressive, and we enjoyed just sitting in the stands and thinking of people doing the same thing for over two thousand years. Roman women following their husband to Hispania and dreaming of returning home, hopefully in glory like Trajan, the first Spanish born emperor who has an arch around somewhere near here.

We then had our now expected three course lunch. Local stuff, Marjan enjoyed her solomillo, I had something I cannot remember the name of but was a lamb stew. Yum. It was a bit cool but if we had sat outside we could have looked through the windows at the basement Roman dig. Further down the street we ran into the Temple of Diana. Roman women worshipped here, later Jewish women had a synagogue and later still a medieval woman got her husband to build a palace among it. That is the solid part of the building in the picture below, now Marjan is enjoying it.

Finally we dropped into the Alcazaba. It has seen all the ages of women. Part of the Roman gate to begin with, extended into a fort by the Visigoths, expanded by the Moors when they rebelled against the caliphate of Cordoba, used again by the Reconquista Christians and in particular Isabel I when fighting off some of her challengers. They each used bits of what was already there and added and expanded. But modern woman seems uncomfortable sitting on a bit of Roman pillar.

A pleasant drive back, now that James is using main roads we are flying. Trujillo-Merida was via a Hume highway style road. We stopped off at the supermarket for supplies. We had a home cooked meal, including morcilla, ja....ja....ja...., before a paseo to Plaza Mayor. Sorry Marjan, I chose to make Pizarro sharp and in focus.

Finally, we check the car is still in its parking spot, as seen from our apartment doorway. All good.

Assuming all goes well we go for a hike in the national park tomorrow. Good night.