Caceres - Spain

Caceres (and in Spanish Spain as opposed to Latin Spanish – this is pronounced Cartheres)

We had a wonderful bus ride – seriously not kidding – which I know is a shock for us as we usually have the most horrid bus rides but this one with the beautiful country landscape of Spain was awe inspiring (and only about 3 hours long).

Our arrival at the bus depot was met with the open arms of Ainslie Hone who is the daughter of Helene whom we have worked with for the past few years at Caboolture State High School and is a good friend. Both Megs and myself felt a little odd about staying with someone that we didn’t know at all; not even met briefly but with assurances of Helene that she was very much like herself we accepted the gracious offer to stay with Ainslie and we were amused no end by the never ending similarities between this mother and daughter!! We love Helene so you can imagine that it wasn’t long before we also loved Ainslie and were so glad to be able to inform her Mum that she is more than happy in what is now her Spanish home of Caceres. We hope you will see why this lovely lady has chosen to live here instead of Australia when you read the following; “Ainslie Tours”.

Our tour began with the ‘getting to know you chat’ at Ainslie’s apartment then it was off to see the local town which is a very pretty historic village with absolutely fantastic architecture (see photos) with windy little streets that seem to turn into the most amazing little plazas and of course the very large main plaza that is surrounded not only by the historical buildings but restaurants and shops. We were able to enter into a museum that gave us a little more insight to the town and it’s heritage which is always a handy thing when walking around so you don’t just admire the buildings but understand a little more of the context of  which it was built. Ok after our little bit of education we had a number of ‘Tinto de veranos” this is basically a wine spritzer in a number of different venues before heading to the Festival of St Jorge. This festival is about Saint George fighting the dragon; now I’m not sure of the connection to Caceres at present but there will be some investigation as to how and why they celebrate this here when we believed that it was an English thing but anyway to the festival we went. The plaza was packed – every person in Caceres seemed to be there and the parade and performance of the evening was bigger in some respects to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The show itself had been well rehearsed and was very well performed with HUGE marionettes of dragons and St Jorge’s horse was an artwork in itself – brilliantly done. Add the sometimes mystic and earth moving music that was blasted out of many well-placed speakers to the visual performance and lighting show and you have an amazing feeling that you have just stepped back in time. The festival ended with a the burning of the dragon and about half an hour of fireworks, that at times you felt just a little too close to – a number of still aflame bits (for want of a better word) were hitting the very quickly dispersing crowds seeking coverage. But overall it was definitely one of those unforgettable moments and an amazing welcome to Caceres.

Our next item on the agenda was the Cheese and Wine festival in Trujillo, which is a town about 45mins away by bus. Our early start was hampered by our lateness in getting home from the festival the night before hence we went for lunch J The scenery again is like many of the books that Megs and I enjoy so much; the castle and the fort atop a hill with the picturesque agriculture and land surrounding it. Have to mention at this point we are reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet and if you have read this book you would understand that we were basically walking in areas that are in the book and seeing things with a now, not so Untrained eye giving a new perspective of what we were seeing and some of the nuances of villages and their people. Therefore it was easy for us to imagine what it would be like and to picture it whilst standing in these wonderful historic sites. A big thank you goes to Dave Dodge who gave us this book to read – we will be forever thankful for the wonderful insight it has given us.

Right now back to the Cheese and Wine Festival – oh my god the cheeses; so many different varieties and not enough stomach space!! We had our favourites and I even purchased some that was first tasted with strawberry and chocolate topping. Disgusting as this sounds – it was delicious and had me going back two more times – who would have thought you could put chocolate, strawberry and cheese together – we certainly didn’t and the cheese was a little like Brie in it’s taste – add a nice wine and presto – heaven!!!!

Once filled to capacity with wine and cheese we decided to do the exploring of the area – we entered into a church that you will not be surprised to hear has a statue of the Virgin Mary that can be seen from outside the church through a window but when inside you only saw the back of her –but wait there is more – this is the surprise bit; you can actually put 50cents into a slot and have the statue turn around to face the inside of the church. This is a little odd and slightly disconcerting as you realise that all the people outside can’t see her face and whether you need to put another 50 cents in to put things to rights but alas before we had to do this the statue turned on it’s own to once again face her people!!

Again we must mention that the people of our past has absolutely no fear of heights and perfect balance as of course all the stairs had nothing to hang onto with some lovely drops that would either kill or at least break a few things if you fell!! Didn’t stop us though, as the view to be had at the top of these buildings was definitely something to behold and something that should not be missed. After our exploring we headed back down towards the bus depot and happened across a Patisserie where we tried a number of ‘local’ delicacies and then looked around the markets where I was able to purchase a scarf and then it was off back to Caceres.

The following day was Saturday where us girls enjoyed a Pyjama day of working on the blog, reading and Ainslie swearing at a new game she had found on her computer that she had become addicted to. We did this for the entire day and into the night until about 8pm where us three girls, amazing at it seems got ready; with showers I might add, in 45 minutes to head to meet some of Ainslie’s friends for drinks, tapas and raciones (this to me is just like a bigger serving of tapas that is shared).

What lovely friends Ainslie has; Iova who speaks English like a native and her boyfriend Paco (Fran is his real name) and another friend Fran (hence the Paco!!) We did as the Caceres people do and that is basically pub crawl – well their version of it where you order drinks but you also get with every serve of drinks; tapas. What a fabulous idea – I reckon I could go without buying any food in this town! The tapas was varied and very enjoyable – Megs even tried squid! It was a late night and my mind was reeling; the whole ‘th’ sound where I normally would use ‘s’ made for some interesting conversations where sometimes I had no idea what Fran was saying – he was very patient though bless him J I have decided though that a language that purposely puts in a lisp is not very attractive on men – sorry people!! Having learnt Latin Spanish; it makes me giggle when I hear it with the lisp in music…oh dear….anyway it was amazing to learn that not all people from Spain use the ‘lisp’ and the further up the hierarchical ladder the less it is used which surprised me no end as I always thought the Spaniards felt the Central and South Americans spoke a lower form of Spanish – the things we learn hey!

Another late night, another not so early morning where it was raining and our scheduled outing to Merida was delayed until Monday – yeah another relaxing PJ day!!

Megs Typing

Merida was an hour by train, so we were up early – seriously to catch the 8:something train.  Once on the train we settled down to doze for the next hour as we sped past the countryside.  On arrival we exited the station to find a very quiet (public holiday quiet) town.  Where to?????  We set off on foot to find the ancient ruins of the Roman Amphitheatre and colosseum (smaller than the one in Rome but still very impressive).  The amphitheatre is still used today for concerts and events.  We were lucky to arrive early and share the ruins with only one bus group.  We explored every tunnel, entrance and doorway we could – see photos.

After leaving the ruins we decided to take the tourist train/bus (you know the ones with cutesy carriages).  We hopped on and made ourselves comfortable for 5 minutes – we were then inundated with a busload of Spanish tourists who filled the train to capacity.   Once the tour guide had her busload of people boarded we set off.  One corner, another corner, the tour bus people were in high spirits and singing happily but loudly their theme song (I can only assume), the third corner and then stop……..  The driver got out of his seat and walked to the back of the carriages talking on the phone.  This seemed a little unprofessional but we waited.  He continued talking and pacing up and down the length of the carriages and then he told us that we would have to get off as the last carriage had a flat type!!!!!  40 people spilled onto the road causing a little disruption to the passing traffic, then the front carriage also disembarked and the train wobbled down the road to be fixed.  The situation obviously distressed the driver as he was heard repeating, “This has not happened in over 3 years!”

Decision time, do we wait 40 minutes for them to fix/organise the tour or do we get our money back and explore ourselves.  Option 2, we got our money back and explored the streets of Merida.  Exploration makes you hungry so we had some of the tastiest raciones so far.  We then headed back to the train and settled in for the trip home.  All that was left to do was to pack for our next adventure – Madrid.

Thank you again Ainslie for showing us your wonderful city, your hospitality and your friendship.  

Yes I know you shouldn't touch things in Museums but it was sooo tempting!

Nothing in there!!

Our tour guide and friend Ainslie in her hometown

Ainslie's favourite corner

Interesting architecture

Looks a little English does it not?? It was Richard the Lionheart hhmmm

Getting some invaluable history from a local

Here's George and the Dragon...oh sorry San Jorge

Ainslie was very excited when she found after four years that Caceres

finally sells V - imported from Holland no less. I think she was going back

to the shop to buy the whole slab!!

Main Plaza in Caceres

Some of the shops

The historical side next to the plaza

Same

Heading into the historical section

Lovely narrow streets with surprises around every corner

Like other corners and murmurs of "Are we lost??"

Don't ask - we don't know!!

This is the cistern underneath the museum of Carceres

There's a doorway but I thick they must have been much shorter

people than Megs!

Some of the traditional dress

Check out the hat!!!

One of the many churches

Love these streets

Another church that was in front of a smaller plaza

This is Bishop 'what's his name' (sorry) that has very shiny feet

where people have rubbed his toes for luck!!

The crowd from one side at the festival St Jorge

The other side - lots of people hey?!

There we are!

This lady was amazing - she did flips and all sorts of acrobatics whilst suspended

from balloons! She represented the Princess in the story

She reached some amazing heights

One of the dragons/demon like creatures - this is a marionette!!

Very clever 

This is the biggest Dragon he was at least 50 metres long - again a marionette

As was this beautiful horse that St Jorge was riding

His legs moved and he also could rear up - amazing and sooo big!

This shows you the height of it!

We watched this bloom with very mystical music

Into the princess who was dancing inside

The dragon has been killed and was set on fire

Very impressive with the historical buildings behind - and the big bass music

being pumped out through the plaza made you feel like you were

back in time!

The fire got quite big!!

Fireworks time

Ta Daaaah!!

Our first taste of local cheese!!

This was our very favourite - chocolate and strawberry on cheese!!

This is the cheese in a jar

Trujillo - panoramic of the walk up to the castle

Loads of Storks everywhere they are a iconic bird of Extremadura Province

The walk up to the castle

On the castle walls

View from the castle wall

aaah this was where one of those look out things was!!

Look what's written on the bottom of it!!

View from the castle with Ainslie

We just love our Ainslie

How beautiful is this scenery?

Arses in arches - has a nice ring to it doesn't it?!?!

Tree - the one tree in the middle ground of castle - the square - thought it

might be nice to see another tree rather than an arch!!

Sweets Store

Gallons of sugar in each tiny bite!!

How cute are these??

Cheese festival in the Plaza de Trujillo

Not too many people at this time which was fab!!

Fountain in the middle of the square was full of water but not running

More cheese!!

The weaving texture on the outside of some of the cheeses was amazing!

Look ugly coloured cheese swell!!

Sooo many to choose from

You get bread with most of them which is nice - makes for a nice lunch: bread, cheese and wine!!

Only thing missing was the olives!

Ugly cheese flag opportunity

Ta Daaaaa!

Taste test of ugly cheese!! Wasn't bad really - tasted like Kraft spread said

our judge Megs!

Baby stork!!!!!!! How cute is that!!!

aaah but lets not forget the archways!!!

Jail for these two!

Megs trying to get a photo

The wall of the castle including the bell tower

aaaah the bell tower close up

Peek a Boo

Us at Trujillo

The view into some rich person's back yard from the castle - not a private

situation for the poor people as there were quite a few tourists about!!

Arty shot

Us and a close up of the bell

The Tree

Interesting markings on the inside wall of the castle

In the historic streets there were a number of really nice doors

Can't tell you what it is - sorry

Arty shot - sun going down

A street leading to that building that I can't identify

Cute little windy streets

The secret archway - I wonder what was behind this during the middle ages??? Maybe

it is still there????

Stairway to heaven - I don't think so - look closer!!

On the way back into town

Our night out with Ainslie - yes it's Tapas and Tinto de Verano

Meg's actually ate some of these tentacles!!

Here we are at yet another pub/bar to enjoy drink and tapas

So what does a cigarette rolled with rosemary tast like??

One of the bars we went to

Oh this picture was to remind us to tell you the Cacerens are very politically

aware - they have both crossing girls and boys. Can you imagine an autistic kid -

"That's a girl I can't cross I'm a boy!!"

A little out of order - this is our arrival drink in Madrid - 

you guessed it - Sangria

Madira - this is the next destination on Ainslie's Tours

This is the colosseum

Ainslie and an Arch - she's catching on!!

Hhhmmmm yet another arch - why won't anyone stand i front of an arch anymore!!

Are there we go!!

Deep dark dungeon - well not dungeon just the underneath section of the 

colosseum where the gladiators and animals were kept before the 'games'

The theatre - this is still used today!

Just amazing - can you imagine watching a play here?!

Arch with tunnel!! This is where the actors come through to the stage

Side view - you will notice they are packing up from a performance

The statues are in pretty good nick still

Lots of audience area

Our attempt at acting

Where's the arch and why am I in a ditch!!

The girls having a wee rest

With parts missing you can still see the magnificence

One of the lovely statues - they are everywhere

Look at those arches!!!

The area has been kept beautiful - lovely parks and gardens surround these historic sites

There is quite a bit of the colosseum missing but you still  can get a feel for what it was like

Again the gardens in and amongst the relics were just beautiful

This is the view from behind the stage - this is where the actors left to congregate

with the VIPs behind the stage - it was called the green plaza - I wonder if that's where

the 'green room' at the Sydney's Opera House comes from????

Nice!

Megan being a statue!

Ainslie under what we think is a cumquat tree

Rest time for us!

Flat tyre!

Everyone off!!

Town Centre of Madira

Lovely fountain but not running

These were magnificent - Iced/ice cream cafe mochas!!! YUM

They had a fabulous walkway/esplanade with gardens and archways

Just lovely

Elona could not resist to take a photo depicting the burden of religion 

Small church dedicated to Mary