Cacerés, Mérida, Trujillo & Guadalupe

This past weekend I went on a UConn weekend trip to Mérida, Cacerés, Trujillo and Guadalupe - all located in the western side of Spain in the autonomous community of Extremadura.

First stop: Mérida. Of course the first thing we did was eat. But after that, we went to a beautiful teatro romano (Roman Theatre). Built during Augustus' rule over the Roman Empire. Mérida has retained a lot of characteristics of an ancient Roman capital city. Although there has been a lot of damage done to the theatre over the years, it was really beautiful. Our tour guide told us of the amazing acoustics of the theatre, so Anna sang on stage for us all!

Center stage

View of the whole stage 

View of the where the audience would sit

Right next door to the teatro romano is the anfiteatro (amphitheatre). This is where the gladiators would fight against each other or against animals. It was pretty surreal standing in the amphitheatre imaging what had taken place there.

Amphitheatre 

Amphitheatre

Second Stop: Cacerés. After touring the amphitheatre and Roman theatre of Mérida, we drove to Cacerés, where we would be staying for the weekend. Cacerés is a city which contains an old walled city (ciudad monumental) and has architectural characteristics that mirror the history of the city, most specifically the religious warfare between the Moors and Christians. Luckily for us, Cacerés was in the middle of some sort of medieval festival when we were there. The city was beautifully decorated, had little markets set up, and artists performing. We even saw a man herding a gaggle of geese around the city!

One of the entrances to the ciudad monumental

A band performing at a market

Inside the walled city

Inside the walled city

The gaggle of geese and their leader

Looking outside the walled city

Third stop: Trujillo. When we arrived in Trujillo, we found the majority of the inhabitants gathered in the Plaza Mayor of the city (the town center). Turns out some Spanish soldiers were swearing their allegiance to the country to be officially accepted into the military, pretty sure it was just a formality. The castillo de Trujillo (Castle of Trujillo) was definitely the highlight of our visit to Trujillo.

Military ceremony 

Climbing up to the castle

View from the castle overlooking the city

Now empty Plaza Mayor after we walked back down from the castle

Fourth and final stop: Guadalupe. We only had time to see one attraction in Guadalupe: the famous Royal Monastery of Santa Maria of Guadalupe (Real Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe). Unfortunately for us, the monastery was closed for tours when we arrived. But I still got a beautiful photo of the front facade; guess this is just another reason I'll have to come back to Spain!

Real Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

Overall, this trip was a great opportunity to explore the amazing history and culture of Extremadura. I'm glad my school program had organized this trip for us, because Extremadura hadn't really captured my attention as a place I had wanted to travel to, but I'm really glad I had the chance to - I loved it!

Next week I have plans to travel to Paris to celebrate Thanksgiving with my cousin! I'm happy that I will get to spend this holiday with family, even though I bet we won't have any turkey.