Lusitania's capital - Merida

From Wellington, Talavera and the 1800's back in time to the Romans & the Emperor Augustus. Merida was founded in the year 25 BC, with the name of Emerita Augusta (meaning the bachelors – discharged soldiers – of the army of Augustus, who founded the city; the name Mérida is an evolution of this) by order of Emperor Augustus, to protect a pass and a bridge over the Guadiana river. The city became the capital of Lusitania province, and one of the most important cities in the Roman empire. Mérida preserves more important ancient Roman monuments than any other city in Spain and whilst they dont quite match up to some of the more remote African and Middle Eastern ruins, they are actually pretty damn impressive.

It was a baking hot day, and I think I must have drunk gallons of water as I wandered around. First stop was the Amphitheatre and the theatre , both in remarkably good repair. During the summer months, the Amphitheatre continues to be used as a venue for plays, opera and other such events. There was lots of Roman propaganda to be seen, with worshipful statues of Augustus and Livia, his wife. 

 From the theatre it's a quick trip to the aqueduct - Acueducto  de los Milagros, or aqueduct of miracles which evoked much awe in the inhabitants of Merida. It is now beloved of storks, all nesting happily on the tops of the towers.






The town has cunningly built a high view point to help you get the best view of the circus. They are keen to point out their most famous son, Diocles, who won fame and fortune, both in Merida and in Rome as a charioteer.

 The remaining town fort or Alcazaba was built by the Muslim emir Abd ar-Rahman II. My overriding memory by this point was of the temperature rising into the 40's and finding shade and cool in a neat little underground filtration system and reservoir that they built to provide water to the garrison. Next to the Alcazaba is the Roman bridge across the river, still in use today. Beautiful town, well worth a visit.

In famous footsteps

First stop of the day today was Talavera La Reina. It is the site of a major battle on 27–28 July 1809 between Sir Arthur Wellesley ( later Viscount Wellington of Talavera), his Spanish allies vs the French led by Bonaparte. Although its a later period of history than I usually am a fan of, the Bernard Cromwell's Sharpe series, charting the course of the Napoleonic wars across Portugal and Spain, and the charismatic soldier turned officer Rifleman brings it to life in a way that just makes me want to see the real places. Of course there is always the TV series too  - sadly, no Sean Bean in evidence .......


That said, Talavera just wasn't that exciting - the French seem to have made a point of destroying everything they could, so other than seeing the surrounding countryside, there just isn't that much left. It did make me realise one thing though : the wars were only fought during the summer seasons, the uniforms of the time were made of woollen clothe - and Talavera is *HOT*. And its not even July yet! The heat and the drenched with sweat clothing and presumably strong smells just doesn't come across in the books. Makes me think of Sean in a whole new ( and much less attractive ) light.....

It had a pretty church , but basically, time to trog on out of the Province of Toledo, and over into Extremadura. There's this child's habit of mistranslating words in other languages - and Extremadura just calls for that - it's either  'extra wood', or 'extremely hard' - both of which are incredibly apt. There is a lot of cork oak grown here, and as you drive though, the country changes from semi-barren wheat plains to hilly cork oak plantations and in a fair number of totally unagriculturally viable places, sun farms!

There are many beautiful castles, and I just didn't get enough time to visit them all : sights like this one from the motorway were very common!