Today, I rose at 6 am as the suitcases had to be at the door by 7 am. At 8:30 am, we departed for Carmona in Spain, but I persuaded our tour guide to let me walk down early as I have motion sickness problems and needed to snag a seat near the front. My plan is to have the second seat on the right-hand side as that gives me a wonderful view out of the window for driving on the right, a tolerably decent view out of the front, and doesn’t annoy my tour-mates as I am not sitting in either of the front seats.
We set off for Mérida, part of the provice of Badajoz, and the capital of Extremadura. At our first stop at a petrol station, I managed to convice some people to make me a ham and cheese sandwich on croissant, and sell me two bottles of white wine (medium and small.) My method of communication was to type what I wanted to say into google, and add the phrase “in Spanish” and then read it back to them. It worked!
Mérida’s main claim to fame is the amphitheatre (that hosted the gladiators, animal hunts and executions), and the theatre, which hosted the plays. Of the two, the theatre was much more impressive as it had the orignal Roman colums there, plus four original statues. The young man who was our local tour guide was so much better than the tour guide who’d taken us around Evora, that I realized how boring she’d been. He took us through the sites with energy and enthusiasm, so much so that I was able to stand still to listen to him.
After that, it was lunch time. He advised us to have lunch first, then go and walk to the Roman Bridge (thirty minutes each way), and then go to the Archealogical Museum (free) and use the toilets there.
I found a rather touristy place for lunch, where the people didn’t speak English. Nevertheless, I ordered an Ensalada Avocado and red wine (vino tinto), which proved to be much tastier than its Portuguese cousin. After that, I set out on my errands. Because the toilets at the pit stop hadn’t had soap or water in them, I went around the corner to a pharmacy to buy hand wipes. Again, the people didn’t speak English, but using my Google method (which I prepared while standing in line) I was able to get the man to understand what I wanted.
Next, I decided I needed dessert. I spent most of my free time finding a bakery, which sold various items. Most of these seeemed to be extremely carby and sweet. So I opted for Opera Cake, which I split into two when I got to the Parador at Carmona.
Our Tour Guide gave us until 3pm to enjoy Mérida. Unfortunately, a couple of people (the couple sharing the front seat in front of me) were missing. Even more unfortunately, they’d left their iPhone on the floor under their seat, so that when the tour guide called them, the phone rang under the seat. (Not helpful!) Eventually, he found them and we set off at 3:30 pm, thirty minutes late.
We made another pit stop, where I spent my time ordering coffee. I wanted a hot chocolate, but when I said “chocolate calde” they either didn’t understand, or said they didn’t have it. So I ordered a cafe con leche instead, as I was told that everyone did that in Spain. Because I wanted to go to sleep tonight, I had only 5 sips, before leaving it. Then I went to find a snack, as I hadn’t had anything other than lunch, and found a small Twix, which I devoured.
Eventually, we arrived at our Parador, built on the site of the medieval castle of Peter of Castile. Needless to say it commands a fine view over the gentle countryside. The only fly in the ointment was when I discovered I could not get my old-fashioned key out of the door. Silly me! I had to turn it so that it was horizontal, not vertical, before it eased out of the lock.
