Coming to you from Guadalupe

The one in Spain, that is.

You may not know that long before Juan Diego, there was another Virgin of Guadalupe, and we saw her today. So now we can check that off – we’ve seen the Our Lady of Guadalupes from both the Old and the New Worlds. 

And now, coming to you from the balcony of a lovely little hostel steps from the Real (meaning: Royal) Monastery of Guadalupe, perfect, clean and so cheap we can have two rooms. In fact, if they’d had them available, it’s so cheap, we could have had three, which would have been just fine with me at this point…

I’ll be writing about aspects of this trip in detail for a while, so tonight (from the balcony!) I’ll just summarize today.

I want to begin by saying that from this point on, only about 1/3 of the trip was planned and booked. I booked this hostel the day before we arrived, and I just now booked a hotel in Toledo for the next couple of days. We’ve got a car, there’s no shortage of places to stay, and there was just no way to predict how we’d feel or what we’d want to see. As I always say – it’s all new to me, so really, what does it matter whether I see A rather than B or C?

We got up this morning and headed out to see a couple more things in Caceres. I’ll just remind you that “seeing things” in Spain can be just as fraught as “seeing things” in Italy. God only knows when things will be open, so you have to just do what you can and give the rest to that same God. I mean, hours are posted, but there are all sorts of complications – such as Corpus Christi last Thursday, the Birth of St. John the Baptist today, and so on. So “things” that we couldn’t see yesterday got seen today – most of them, that is. Because, well..it’s Monday. And that means museums are closed and unfortunately one of the things I wanted to see was the Moorish cistern under the museum….no go.

We saw some things, bought a few things and checked out of our hotel –the very nice Casa Don Fernando  hotel right on Plaza Mayor in Caraces. Then to the car and off we went.

 

A word on the car: I rented the car in Seville, picked it up at the train station there, rather than the airport, which was much further away from our apartment. Given that it was a Saturday and so traffic was much lighter, driving wasn’t an issue. Driving in a foreign country on a weekend is a good introduction: traffic is, as I said, lighter, so you have time to contemplate the mysteries of signage without the pressure of impatient drivers behind you.

Our hotel in Caceres was in the old city, with, of course, no parking, so I parked in a lot about a third of a kilometer away (see photo on the left above), and we just walked with our luggage to the hotel (see photo on the right above). It was about twelve Euros for 24 hours, and they’re so advanced, the ticket must have an RFD chip in it – you pay on the floor on which you’ve parked, and you don’t even have to insert it as you leave – it reads it from afar, somehow as you drive near the exit, and up swings the gate.

Note: I did stress a bit about the car – I don’t know why, considering I’ve driven in Sicily for pete’s sake, and I even worked out alternative itineraries which did not involve driving, but oh boy, I’m glad I dropped that idea. After being dependent on walking and buses and trains for two weeks – what a joy to get behind the wheel of a car again. Really.  Plus, there’s no way we could have done what we did today without a car.

First stop: a place called Romangordo (Fat Roman? I have no idea) which I learned about from this blog post. It’s a small village which has been enriched by a bunch of urban art. It was interesting to walk around in – and we weren’t alone – there were two groups of school children there – and one were getting a big lesson is something related to something the British did in 1812 (not sure what it was). A pleasant twenty minutes or so.

 

Then back in the car, down the road on the way to Guadalupe to Cabañas del Castillo  ……. I learned about this from a blog post as well, but had no idea, even as I drove up to it, why we were there or what would be interesting about it, until M saw the remnants of the castle on the heights, figured out that we could get up to it, and then…dang it. 

Okay. It wasn’t too bad. I have to say, I saw the sign indicating distance when we began walking, and noted the number “0.8”  I gulped a little, but then determined, as I try to do with everything from finances to social media fascism, it’s for the children, and forged on. When we were all done, I said, “You know, that wasn’t bad. It didn’t feel like an eighth of a mile.” When of course, I was reminded, “It was an eighth of a kilometer, Mom.”

Oh.

Well, of course.

 

Gorgeous, gorgeous views.

Then on to Guadalupe…more on that tomorrow, when you awaken!