Days 12 and 13: Caceres, Trujillo, and Merida
The next two days of our vacation were about my relentless pursuit to see every corner of Spain, my favorite country. Caceres, which we used as a base for our day trips, is about a three-hour drive from Madrid, through land that's fairly flat and arid--yellow fields dotted with olive trees and crumbling houses. We didn't make any stops along the way, though we tried for a McDonald's breakfast sandwich at a McDonald's that strangely didn't open until noon, despite advertising McMuffins in its windows.
Caceres is a Unesco World Heritage site and the area been settled since prehistoric times, though the city itself was founded in 25 BC. The city as it currently stands is a medieval walled city, though what makes it distinct from other walled cities is that many of its buildings are from the 1500s rather than the 1600s. It's also in the Extremadura region, where the conquistadors hailed from--though more on that later. And even more exciting, it was in Game of Thrones! (It stands in for King's Landing, which used to be filmed in Dubrovnik.)
We stayed in the Palacio Oquendo, which used to be a palace and is a very quick walk to the walled city above. We had the city almost to ourselves and saw only a few other people as we walked along the narrow stone streets--a very a nice change from some tourist-packed walled cities like Eze.It was also less touristy in general than I'd expected--instead of souvenir shops every few doors, the city was filled with bars and restaurants.
For dinner, we ate at Atrio, a two-star Michelin restaurant headed by Chef Tono Perez--he came out and met all of the tables and was very gracious. Below is a cracker made of potato and filled with goat cheese and rosemary (delicious), prawn jelly with caviar (not my fave as I do not like fish), squid with ink ravioli (also not my fave), mushroom with pork drippings which was astoundingly good, herb-crusted beef with broccoli puree, casar ice cream (which is a sheep's cheese), various desserts and then an "egg yolk" with foam that was sadly the worst thing I've tasted, maybe ever. I don't even have words for it, other than it tasted like a combination of synthetic cheddar and the fishiest fish from the bottom of a lake where people throw trash. Despite that, it was still a good meal.
The highlight of the dinner was actually the tour of the wine cellar, which has over 42,000 bottles, some dating back to 1806.
The following morning we decided to do a death march through Trujillo and Merida--both reasonably close to Caceres. We started in Trujillo, since it's still hot in Spain and we wanted to get any climbing near the castle over in the cool part of the day.
Trujillo (like Caceres) is in the Extremadura region of Spain, where the conquistadors hailed from--including Francisco Pizzaro, who conquered the Incan Empire in Peru.
The castle is from the 13th century and also was used in Game of Thrones as Casterly Rock. Again, we had the town, the castle, and amazing views almost to ourselves (at least until lunch when the school let out and all the teenagers dashed down to the main square to get their sandwiches).
If you hate other tourists, there really are so many places in Spain you can escape to in order to get away from them! (Those huge nests in the close up below are stork nests, which I found fascinating.)
From Trujillo we drove to Merida, the capital of Extremadura and home to the most extensive Roman ruins in Spain. We most definitely did not have Merida to ourselves--it's a much larger city and was crowded with both locals and tourists alike. Since we were pressed on time, we stuck to the two ruins I wanted to see most--the aqueduct and the theater.
The theater was amazing--built between 16 and 15 BC, and able to seat 6,000 spectators (though they had to sit and enter the theater according to class).
I didn't have any eating highlights on our Merida/Trujillo day, since I seem to be incapable of being in Spain without getting some sort of mild (or devastating) food poisoning, but I did have some excellent fig ice cream with honey and also a berry cheesecake.
One thing I wish I had not eaten were the Extramaduran shepherd's crumbs--a regional specialty comprised of bread crumbs and paprika, a fried egg, and peppers.
Caceres is a Unesco World Heritage site and the area been settled since prehistoric times, though the city itself was founded in 25 BC. The city as it currently stands is a medieval walled city, though what makes it distinct from other walled cities is that many of its buildings are from the 1500s rather than the 1600s. It's also in the Extremadura region, where the conquistadors hailed from--though more on that later. And even more exciting, it was in Game of Thrones! (It stands in for King's Landing, which used to be filmed in Dubrovnik.)
For dinner, we ate at Atrio, a two-star Michelin restaurant headed by Chef Tono Perez--he came out and met all of the tables and was very gracious. Below is a cracker made of potato and filled with goat cheese and rosemary (delicious), prawn jelly with caviar (not my fave as I do not like fish), squid with ink ravioli (also not my fave), mushroom with pork drippings which was astoundingly good, herb-crusted beef with broccoli puree, casar ice cream (which is a sheep's cheese), various desserts and then an "egg yolk" with foam that was sadly the worst thing I've tasted, maybe ever. I don't even have words for it, other than it tasted like a combination of synthetic cheddar and the fishiest fish from the bottom of a lake where people throw trash. Despite that, it was still a good meal.
The highlight of the dinner was actually the tour of the wine cellar, which has over 42,000 bottles, some dating back to 1806.
The following morning we decided to do a death march through Trujillo and Merida--both reasonably close to Caceres. We started in Trujillo, since it's still hot in Spain and we wanted to get any climbing near the castle over in the cool part of the day.
Trujillo (like Caceres) is in the Extremadura region of Spain, where the conquistadors hailed from--including Francisco Pizzaro, who conquered the Incan Empire in Peru.
The castle is from the 13th century and also was used in Game of Thrones as Casterly Rock. Again, we had the town, the castle, and amazing views almost to ourselves (at least until lunch when the school let out and all the teenagers dashed down to the main square to get their sandwiches).
If you hate other tourists, there really are so many places in Spain you can escape to in order to get away from them! (Those huge nests in the close up below are stork nests, which I found fascinating.)
From Trujillo we drove to Merida, the capital of Extremadura and home to the most extensive Roman ruins in Spain. We most definitely did not have Merida to ourselves--it's a much larger city and was crowded with both locals and tourists alike. Since we were pressed on time, we stuck to the two ruins I wanted to see most--the aqueduct and the theater.
I didn't have any eating highlights on our Merida/Trujillo day, since I seem to be incapable of being in Spain without getting some sort of mild (or devastating) food poisoning, but I did have some excellent fig ice cream with honey and also a berry cheesecake.
One thing I wish I had not eaten were the Extramaduran shepherd's crumbs--a regional specialty comprised of bread crumbs and paprika, a fried egg, and peppers.
I'll end on this peacock we found on the clocktower as we walked back from dinner...lovely. I would recommend this trio of cities to anyone who loves history and wants to get away from the tourist crush of Madrid and the walled cities that are on the more typical sight-seeing path.
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