Cáceres - Guadelupe: 125km

Sunday 25 May 2003

We have a basic improvised breakfast on our room. Than we are on our way towards Trujillo. There we have a proper breakfast in a hotel in unsuspected luxury. The 3-star hotel seems deserted, but at our arrival staff is alarmed and assembled and we get an excellent à la carte breakfast. We drive on towards  Guadelupe. In Guadelupe we have booked a room in the Parador, housed in former 16th century hospital.  The village top attraction is the monastery of  San Jeronimo. The monastery was built in 1340 on the spot where a shepherd found a crucifix - said to have been carve by saint Luke - some 50 years earlier. The delay in building the place was caused by the fact that Guadelupe was still under moorish rule at the time. The monastery brought and still brings - with a break during the dissolution of monastic orders during the 19th century - hordes of tourists to the region. The village has a large number of souvenir stands selling all thinkable and unthinkable trinkets that can - even remotely - be linked to the Virgin of Guadelupe.  We have lunch first at the   Hospedería, a hotel that occupies a wing of the monastery. After siësta we visit the monastery at 3.30pm. The compulsory guided tour takes through the cloister, exhibits of old manuscripts and paintings - one of Goya and a few of El Greco among them. Then we reach the beautiful sacristy with 8 panels of  Zurbaran, the only of his works still to be seen on the site where they were made. They portray scenes from the life of  St Hieronymus. After that we are led to the holy of holies. In a small room is the efigy of the black madonna, richly dressed and decorated. It was carved out of cedar wood and various jobs of varnish made it darker and darker. Some of the visitors have brought flowers for her. We can touch or kiss a silver plate which is connected by a chord to the virgin. A monk wipes of the plate after every kiss. 
After the visit to the monastery we have a look at the church and head back for the Parador. The restaurant of the Parador is next to the garden where there are some outdoor tables. Outside it is a lovely place to have dinner. 
During the night we are kept awake by a dripping radiotor tap. We complain at reception and get a new - superior - room and continue our sleep in a four poster bed. 
The weather was nice: around 22 degrees.

Guadelupe - Jarandilla de la Vera: 102km

Monday 26 Mayi 2003

We start the with a delicious breakfast in the Parador. Then it is time to be on our way. We cross the Tejo valley. A beautiful route with a view on the snowcapped mountains of the Sierra de Gredos. We drive into the La Vera area to Jaraíz de la Vera. Here we take a room in the Villa Xarahiz. A converted farmhouse with views on the Sierra de Gredos. We drive to Jarandilla de la Vera, where we have lunch in the Parador. The parador is housed in a castle where Charles V has stayed for a few months when he had to wait for his quarters to be finished in the nearby monatery of San Yuste. At Yuste he would spend his final years after his abdication. We continue towards Losar de la Vera, a small village where small water channels run in the middle of the street. Losar is very quiet, with lots of green.   

After that we drive to the San Yuste monastery that reopens at 3.30pm. Here we visit the rooms where Charles V spent his final  years (1556-58) after his abdication to his son Philip II. The little palace has only four rooms is part of the monastery itself. The bedroom offers a view from the bed on the altar of the chapel, so that the former emperor could attend mass without leaving his bed. The rooms are very modest. The guide wants us to believe that everything in the rooms including the bed linnen has been used by the emperor himself. How that can be true, knowing that the monastery has been abandoned for years during the 19th century remains a mystery. The monastery is in use again by Franciscan monks. The emperor has been buried upright under the altar. 
After the visit we drive to Garganta de Olla. A well maintained village with narrow alley ways and timbered houses. The Casa de Putas - now a butcher shop - was the brothel for the old emperor's troops and is still painted blue.
We drive back to the hotel. We take some tapas in the village, that is not very interesting. The village's surroundings, however, offer all kinds of activities like trekking and mountain biking. We have an excellent dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Very good quality, but unfortunately short on veggies and greens. 
The weather was very pleasant today: max. 23.5°C

Jaraíz de la Vera - Plasencia: 51km

Tuesday 27 May 2003

From Jaraiz we drive to Plasencia. The town is a bit difficult to drive in. The old centre has very narrow one way alleys. On top of that Tueday is the day for the market - a tradition dating back to the 12th century. We park just outside the city walls and walk to the hotel Rincon Extrameño. It is simple but ok and offers en suite facilities and airco. Unfortunately is very noisy both from the street and the hotel kitchen. 
We do a walk through the town. There are two cathedrals. An early gothic from the 16th century is still being used as a church, while the 13th century Romanic old cathedral is now a museum. The newer cathedral, has never been quite finished. One side has just been closed with simple bricks. We continue along the bishop's palace and the Parador of Plasencia. The city wall has largely been integrated in the houses. It has simply been used  as a back wall for the houses. That is why you hardly notice that the city is walled. Puerto del Sol is the best kept city gate.

Then it is time for lunch and siësta. After the siësta we walk a bit throug town send some e-mail home from an internet café and have a drink on the lively Plaza Mayor, now empty after the weekly market. That night we eat in a not too good a restaurant near the Aquaduct. 
The weather was fine, not too hot, around 25 degrees.

Wednesday 28 May 2003

After breakfast we drive to the Parque Natural de Monfragüe. In the hamlet of Viareal de San Carlos is the information centre of the natural reserve. Here we get a map of the area. There are three marked colour coded walks. We are advised to take the red one. It is a beautiful trek, climbing up a mountain towards a castle ruin. From there we have a superb view on the Tajo valley and the big birds of prey circling around us. They are vultures and eagles, but we are unable to tell them apart. We also see the rare black stork.  They glide gently through the air and get close enough for us to take pictures. A number of bird watchers has taken positions on the mountain top and have put up their equipment. We descend on the other side of the mountain, follow the river bank and return to our point of departure at Fuente de Francia. On the parking lot we are greeted by a fox. He takes a look round and disappears again. We drive back to  Vilareal de San Carlos for a sandwich. Then we take the car for a spin round the reserve and enjoy the view here and there, as well as other varieties of vultures and eagles. We get back to Plasencia around 4pm. 
At night we first have tapas at the Plaza Mayor and later dinner at Meson Chamizo, a fine restaurant.
Today was rather a hot day with temperatures rising to 30°C/86°F. 

Plasencia - La Alberca:    80km

Thursday 29 May 2003

Today we leave Plasencia and the Extremadura too and drive to the Batuecas area in the region of Castilla y León. Via a number of  winding roads we reach La Alberca at around 11am. Here we have a room in the hotel Las Batuecas, a 3 star affair with large room including dinner and breakfast. We move on immediately to the  Peña de Francia the highest peak in the Sierra de Francia with some 1723 metres (±5,700ft). Here is the a former monastery, a chapel and place of pilgrimage and an enourmous TV-transmitter. From here we have a great view of the Sierra and the neighbouring mountains of  Las Hurdes. The mountain top is infested with musquitos. The monastery is now a  Hospederia, popular with pelgrims, but lacking in atmosphere and service. We have a drink and drive down again. Via La Alberca we drive to the Portillo (1200 m/±4,000ft) and descending to the Las Batuecas valley. At the Carmelite convent of San José, begins a trail through a lovely gorge. The walk is not too strenuous and follows the river that has cut its way through the valley. Here too, lots of musquitos. It is a single trek we have to follow back again. There are a number of caves along the way with pre-historic murals, but most of them are closed. Meanwhile it has become very hot  (over 30 degrees). We drive on to Las Mestas, just beyond the regional border in Extremadura. We have a very simple lunch there. From there we take a lot of winding roads back to  La Alberca.
Early evening we explore La Alberca. It is a special place with nice timbered houses in narrow streets and alleys. Only the souvenir shop disturb the idyllic picture.  We drinken something on the village square and get pigs ears as a tapa. In the bar a group of old man is glued with their eyes to the tv watching bull fights on (pay)tv. 
Dinner at the hotel is a disappointment. Rather less than average food. Per course there is a choice of four, but still. And the house wine downright awful.  
Today was very warm with temperatures up to 31°C/88°F.