Caceres

October 23, 2013

Awe inspiring but storkless

Portugal is on a different time zone than Spain, so we lost an hour last night. it will be a very short term loss though - Spain goes off DST Sunday, so we will get our hour back this weekend. In the meantime we have almost a week on a very nice schedule - it doesn't begin getting light until 8, so conditions are just getting rideable about the time we finish up breakfast and get packed up; and it remains light until nearly 8, which works well with Spain's late dinner hour.

We headed out somewhat after 9, one of our earliest departures. The 20 mile ride into Caceres, helped along by a bit of a tailwind, went quickly and left us most of the day to explore the city. We began though by squandering two of them - first by hunting down a cycle store (we forgot to pack a lubricant, and Rachael's bike is getting cranky) and standing there in a two person queue for about 20 minutes while a pair of garrulous customers chatted with the shopkeeper before I could make my 30 second transaction; then by getting lost on the way to the hotel, because I got confused about the way after deviating from our planned route for the trip to the cycle shop - and finally, by getting lost on the way from our hotel to the old city after leaving the map in the room and being seduced to the diametrically wrong direction by the closest park.

Finally oriented, we found our way to the old city (which begins only about 1 block from our hotel) and saw what all of the excitement was about. Walking through the walled old town filled us with awe. It was an early designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in our opinion the recognition is fully merited. We loved wandering through its narrow, meandering, nearly car free streets and looking up at its collection of spectacular towers, palaces and churches. Every corner and changed vantage point brings a surprising new view, leaving you wanting to see every angle of every street and plaza.

After several hours our wow muscles were getting worn so we went back to the (very nearby) hotel to take a breather. We went out for a second look a bit before dinner and after the sun had gone under clouds for the day, and thought it was great in a different lighting too. Then, at sundown some floodlights came on to illuminate some of the more prominent monuments, and that was great too! Then, it started to rain, and seeing it and Plaza Major glisten in the rain was great too.

OK. We are almost 2 weeks into the tour, and I'm awake at 2AM waiting for the drunken crowd below our window to take their scrum somewhere else anyhow, so it's a good time for a first accounting. Here are our top 5 destinations so far, if anyone wants a recommendation:

1. Caceres (we'll see if it holds up after some time passes, but I'm pretty confident)

2. Marvao, a very close second - almost a tie for first

3. Monsaraz

4. Estremoz

5. Evora.

Hey, it worked - the party below moved on! Time to hit the sack again.

Elevation log: 900' today, 23,300' total.