One of the main reasons for us staying in Caceres is to be close enough to visit Merida - a town with the most Roman ruins in the entire of Spain. It is just under an hours drive away so we needed to tackle to parking but with no problem and I paid our bill which enables us to pass in and out of the car park using index plate recognition - very advanced!
Prior to setting off I had found a car park in Merida to aim for (using GPS coordinates) which we are finding the easiest way to successfully get to our destinations.
The drive was fairly easy although it was a bit complicated working out how we should ay for our ticket and after carefully loading an app, registering both the car and my credit card, we discovered we can actually simply pay by car at the machine using the number plate!!
The Roman sites are amazing and scatted across the town. We had a map but could only manage about half of them and it was very hot and quite a walk between them. I was glad we had decided to stay in Caceres as it has much more character than Merida although less Roman ruins! We grabbed lunch at a little bar near the square and I finally had prawns in garlic - delicious. We saw the longest Roman bridge still in existence at 800 meters, underground pools, the Diana Temple and a massive amphitheatre and stage with a surviving two level facade. We were starting to flag so we headed back to the car in the late afternoon for a short drive to what is meant to be the most impressive aqueduct and it really was.
I drove back and we stopped at a massive Carrefour hypermarket on the outskirts of Caceres. It was huge and rather overwhelming after a full days sight seeing. An interesting fact to note is that the shops are fully stocked with fresh fruit, meat and fish and everything is very reasonable to even cheaply priced! Nothing like the bare shelves and exorbitant prices back home.
Over 17,000 footsteps today and I can feel every one of them!
