This past weekend my boyfriend and I took a weekend trip to celebrate my birthday. (!!!) We went to Extremadura, historically one of the poorer provinces of Spain, but the one that known for embutidos (ham, chorizo, etc.). It is in the middle of Spain, between Madrid and Portugal more or less.
First, we went to the small town of Guadalupe. We had to drive through the beautiful Parque Natural Monfragüe to get there, a winding and twisting road high up in the mountains.
Guadalupe is known for it’s Monasterio Real de Guadalupe, where, among other things, Columbus came to visit the Catholic queen Isabel and king Ferdinand three times. The first two times were to convince them it was a good idea to fund his voyage, and the third time was to beg for his life and liberty after this voyages had all but failed. It’s a lovely, impressive structure that can be seen from the road coming in, and has quite a strong presence in the town.
After touring the monastery and eating some lunch (I had a dish called migas, which is the dish of Extremadura), we continued on to the capital of Extremadura, Cáceres. Cáceres, like most once-ancient cities, has a small historic city center, and then the newer neighborhoods where people have expanded the city.
We went straight to the historic city center and saw Plaza Mayor, the Bujaco Tower and old city wall, the catedral and two other churches (one of which we climbed the bell tower), and the city museum, which had an old Arab cistern.
This weekend also happened to be the feria of Cáceres, and we took advantage of the many food stalls in the main park to try some famous chorizo and jamón ibérico. We also went to the Museo Guayasimín, which was full of revisionist history (no mention of the Civil War nor dictatorship in Spain and painting colonialism as if it were a gift for the native peoples) so if you are ever in Cáceres, do not go there! This is actually the first time, I think ever, that I have advised against going to a museum. But it is what it is. It was shameful to go through the exhibit knowing that some people actually believe the things they read without questioning anything, simply because they do not know.
We finished off the trip with a visit to the Mirador de la Montaña, a wonderful lookout point that gave great views of the city and surrounding area.
Cáceres is not one of the great tourist sites of Spain, but it is a beautiful place and deserves to be visited.