In Merida where all is Roman

So today we got up early and drove the 50 miles to Mérida before having coffee! Talk about tourists with a purpose. By 10, we had parked the car and were sitting in a café near the Arab Castle having our café con leche with a tostada. Boy, the coffee in Spain is SO much better than what we drink in Portugal!

We had a really nice tourist day. From Moorish castle to Roman villa to Roman theater and Roman circus to Roman crypt to great vegetarian restaurant. After a nice long pause with really good food (in our experience, you can usually count on vegetarian restaurants in Spain to be good), we ended the day with a visit to the Roman Art museum, where you can get up close and personal with the mosaics, and then a quick trip through the visigothic art museum. The visigoths, who came in after the Romans, had a much less sophisticated but more appealing style to my uncultured taste.

Before getting back in the car and heading home, we walked over the LONG Roman bridge. Really a beautiful bridge, still standing from Roman times. I have walked over this bridge before while walking the Via de la Plata, and hope to walk over it again this May as I walk the Camino Mozárabe from Almería, which joins up with the Via de la Plata right here in Mérida.Read more