clairedavieswriter

Our destination today was once a major Roman city, and someone must have left an offering for us with the cycling gods. First, they provided shelter, in the form of Cáceres’ train station, from a sudden downpour. And after that, good signs and portents came thick and fast (word of the day: glorieta – roundabout):

Though this good sign seemed to have a catch in the small print: how do the drivers behave on days other than weekends and holidays, we wondered? And, this being Saturday, should we expect less careful driving after 2pm? We pedalled faster, just in case.

This was unequivocally a good sign, which, despite being only 13k from Cáceres, we decided not to ignore, given the low chance of caffeine later in the route.

After that, we barely needed Guillaume (who, whisper it, has been behaving very well so far) because we were either following EV1:

Or our friend the N-630:

And the cycling gods were clearly determined to make up for yesterday’s uninspiring scenery. I mean just look at this:

And this:

And this:

When we weren’t stopping to gape at flower-strewn meadows, or empty tarmac stretching away under cloud-dappled skies, or vast plains fringed by distant mountains, there was Extremadura’s classic dehesa:

Altogether, despite the west wind gusting from 15-26mph, and this worrying sign:

It all made for a very happy cyclist:

Although I confess at this stage in the journey, a spot of tonificación muscular wouldn’t go amiss:

On arrival, Mérida wowed us with amenities both modern:

And ancient:

We’re looking forward to exploring more of both tomorrow. Stay tuned folks, for tales of Augusta Emerita in its heyday. In the meantime, in honour of our last stop (though as the wine experts will know, it isn’t grown there) we thought we’d sample some of this. Salud!