In Trujillo

October 17, 2019

This is our second rest day in the last four. We had plans for a day ride east of town today, but it looks too wet for that to be any fun. It seems to always rain when we visit this town - this happened on our first visit to Trujillo also.

We didn’t get as good a look at Trujillo as we wanted the last time we were here because we arrived late in the day, we were only here one night, and we only got out to explore the place during a few brief breaks in the weather. We thought it was an exceptional place though, and have been looking forward to a longer, slower visit this time.

It was raining this morning during breakfast, but by mid-morning the rains ceased, the day brightened a bit, and the sun even broke through for a few brief period. We hurried out to take advantage of it, and for the next two hours wandered through town, primarily focusing on the dramatic castle that crowns the hill behind it.

By about noon though the rains returned and we scurried back to our room for an hour or two before venturing out for lunch, our main meal for the day.

We liked this little alleyway between our hotel and Plaza Mayor. We walked through it four or five times during our stay. It’s a bit spooky after dark.

Walking up to the castle through the old city

Entering the castle through the Moorish gate

It’s raining again when we emerge from lunch, another fine but economical set menu, so we return to our room to sleep it off for a bit and wait for improvements. They come a few hours later in the form of an overcast but dry sky that will last the rest of the afternoon. We go out again, this time for a walk down and out of town into the countryside that lies beneath the city walls.

We’re both delighted to discover what fine walking terrain this is. The fields below the town are cross-hatched with walking paths lined with stone walls that feel a thousand years old. It reminds me immediately of the ancient monopathi that make some of Greece’s Cycladic Islands such a wonderful place to walk.

We spend about two hours wandering through the fields, alternately stopping to look back up at old Trujillo with its nearly intact city walls; or at intriguing old ruins in the fields below it; or at sheep and tiny lambs bleating near us just on the other side of a low stone wall.

We return to town just in time, just as the light grows dim and it begins lightly raining again. Back to the room again briefly, then out for tapas and one last pleasant surprise on an excellent rest day - the tapas bar has excellent WiFi, and Rachael’s videos from the last two days quickly upload.

Enough with these rest days though. Let’s get back on our bikes tomorrow!

A typical street inside the walled old city.

One of the six gates into the old city through the nearly intact walls that encircle it.

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Brent IrvineTrujillo is quite possibly my favourite town in Europe. I stayed at Hostal Nuria on the Plaza Mayor in 2001, then in Hostal San Miguel in 2015 - both have restaurants, and both were really good. Oddly, in 2015 it was wet and cool the day I arrived.
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5 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Brent IrvineIt ranks high on my list too - really a special place. We stayed in the San Miguel both times, but its restaurant wasn’t open either time. Maybe we’re here too late in the season for smaller places like this to stay open. We did eat at the Nuria though, thought it was great, and wondered how its rooms would have been. Next time.
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5 years ago