Caceres

Well into the Extremadura now, we stopped at Caceres for some provisioning at the Carrefours and for some skyping at the McDs. A little research suggested Caceres was well worth a longer stop. The free camper-stop was full, but we parked in an over-flow area and moved to the regular area the next day. The next night the camper-stop had 34 vehicles parked, legally, less legally, and otherwise. But the police are usually very tolerant at this time of the year. Caceres has the usual Spanish pedigree: paleolithic settlement, cave paintings, "founding" by the Romans in 25BC, Visigoths, Moors, Reconquista, etc. It is yet another World Heritage Site, largely in view of its well-preserved walled town, often a movie set, which shows little external evidence of development past the 16th century. We did an evening stroll, sticking our heads into churches, artists' coops, restaurants, palazzos, etc., finally ending up at the plaza, where most of the populace appeared to be on this Saturday evening.

A bit of the camper-stop at Caceres; the legal bit

Many great old buildings in the old town,
Moorish and Renaissance especially

Inside one of the churches

One of many towers about town

In the artists' coop

Another church

Interior services

Another Renaissance building and tower

Nearby, a convent

Interesting ceramics on the roof

Street scene

Wall and tower, valley and mountains

So eventually we found our way to the plaza, where
everyone else was; a dragon has just landed

One of Spain's many less-heralded plazas, the town's living
room, nonetheless

Somewhere in my reading of or about Cervantes, I had come
across migas, a beggar's dish of bread crumbs cooked in oil
and maybe flavored with garlic or whatever else was about
to be thrown away; we had seen it on several restaurant
menus, and when we got to the plaza, I had to try it; alas,
this is not the beggar's version; but the jamon and huevos
were good; and my curiosity regarding migas is now
satisfied

Strolling back to the camper-stop

Merida

We could have stayed longer in Seville--who couldn't?--but were beginning to look at the calendar and to think about France and then the UK and beyond. So we decamped and headed north and west, continuing our circuit, to Merida, site of some of Spain's best Roman remains.

Caesar Augustus welcomes you to one of his many cities,
Augusta Emerita, now Merida

Which celebrates its Roman heritage

We parked somewhat legally, half on the curb, Vicki stayed
with the camper (she claims to have seen enough Roman
things for a while), and I walked along the beautiful river
front park to get a view of

The originally-Roman fortress, improved by the Visigoths
and Moors

Thus

And particularly Merida's very long Roman bridge, still in
use; must be half a kilometer at least

The respect given the ruins in Merida is impressive

Here's a huge state office building sitting entirely on stilts
above the forum

Thus

Not far away, remains of the aquaduct

Thus

And thus; note stork nests, which are everywhere in Spain,
the national bird)

Thus

We skipped the coliseum and amphitheater--Merida is not particularly RV-friendly, so far as we could tell--and continued our circuit.

For Tawana

We never miss one of your shoppes and are always taking pix for you...

Are you documenting your work?

Seville Tiles

Tiles are all over this part of the world--particularly great in Portugal--but I was struck with the number commercial and other uses in Seville...

Six different tiled portals on this touriste
shoppe 

The rest looked like this

Billboard

Beautiful entry

Farmacia

Architect's signature, under the balcony

1929

Bar Europa

Heritage use; not one of his best-sellers

Butcher

Baker

Somebody's casa

Entrance to an ordinary-looking apartment
building (it was the same in Dos Hermanas,
20 miles away, where our campground was...)

Could someone do this in tile, please?

Seville Sights

After the morning and half the afternoon at the Alcazar, we walked around much of the old town...

Sic Transit, Gloria department again: this is the cigar factory
where Carmen worked....now merely the university

Street lamps, dated 1832

Hotel Alfonso, one of Seville's emblems; we were going to
finish up there with a sherry in the garden, but took a wrong
turn and wound up at Burger King

Cathedral square, cathedral bit, and tower
(originally the minaret)

Entrance to the cathedral with replica of the
weather vane that sits atop

We got as far as the gift shoppe but decided
to skip the cathedral since we missed the
Holy Week parade pictured above; and
since we had seen it in 2010; and since it is
another of those fraudulent "Gothic"
cathedrals one sees in Spain...Gothic
trappings on the outside, thoroughly
Baroque (and dark) on the inside; I am
reminded of Nabokov's claim (contra
Pseudo-Dionysus) that the
gargoyle monsters are on the outside to
show that they have been expelled; in
these cathedrals it is the Gothic that has
been expelled!

Main square again

Some beautiful buildings

Ditto

Ditto again

Kissing alleys in the barrio

Recycling millstones

El Cid still presiding