Today will be a shorter and cooler day for riding, both of which we were looking forward to. I did happen to catch a photo or two of the paradore where we spent the night.
After turning our bags over to the van driver, Borja, we ready the tandem and set off. We were told about the next town at last night's Happy Hour and there will be a lot to walk around and see - an older inner city and some great museums. Good thing it's a short day! As we left the paradore courtyard, another tandem in front of us turned left and our Garmin said turn right. We assumed they were backtracking to take photos of that Roman bridge we rode across yesterday.
As we were leaving town, we came across some more Roman ruins, the Roman Circus of Merida and part of an aqueduct.
The circus grounds won't open for another couple of hours.
When we spotted our first stork a week ago, we thought it was a special treat. Storks and their nests with fledglings in them are EVERYWHERE! Our next stop was a stork condominium atop of a village church. I counted 12 nests up there!
kath vowlesThis the trouble with storks. They don't seem to like to expand outside the area where they were originally born, so if storks are in the area you have lots of them and to some they become a nuisance, building their nests everywhere. Reply to this comment 11 months ago
We continued down the road and crossed a lovely river . . . it appears I enjoyed the scene but failed to take photos. There was an old bridge next to the one we were on. At this point our Garmin told us to turn left, so we did. We stopped because the road turned to gravel with what I call baby head stones. We couldn't see any bicycle tracks anywhere and it seemed very odd to go down this particular road. I pulled out my phone and pulled up the Ride with GPS route on the phone (bigger screen) to see if there was another road close by. I f0und our turn between kilometer 15 and 16 but there wasn't any indication of gravel. Odd! So I pulled up Google Maps to see what other roads would get us to the same spot. Hmmm . . . After much pondering and reviewing maps, we determined that our Garmins were taking us to a different location than where we were supposed to be going. Hmmm . . . any shortcuts to get to the correct road? Nope! It was really a lovely day for a bike ride! So, back to Merida we went and cut over to the other side of town and connected with the correct route. It was a Garmin puzzle!
But then we found this fantastic Roman dam and the puzzling thoughts of Garmin faded quickly as we became absorbed in exploring and learning about its construction a couple of thousand years ago.
This sign explains the assumed construction process
As the day had passed along, we pulled into the tiny village of Aldea del Cano to find a cold beverage. We tried to visit the church, but the Sunday service had it filled. We figured cyclists shouldn't be seen at that moment.
About 15 kilometers from the end of today’s route, we had a flat tire. Sigh! Chuck quickly repaired it by removing all the rubbery sealant, putting a tube in, and pumping it back up. Since the cut was in the sidewall, the sealant wasn’t able to do its job. Oh well … shortly we were back on the road and finished the ride.
We finally made it to the City Center of Caceres and found our hotel off of a large square full of restaurants.
We went exploring after showering and washing the laundry and discovered the Cuidad Monumental. This is the old town which has a mix of Gothic and Renaissance architecture, with cobbled medieval streets, fortified houses and palaces. The city is encircled by Moorish walls from the 12th century with about 30 towers. You have probably seen this area in numerous movies over the years. It’s a popular set for making period films because it is easy for filmmakers to shoot scenes without modern items in view.
