Cáceres, Spain

Shortly after crossing the Portuguese/Spanish border, we stopped in Cáceres, Spain... for lunch and also to take the advantage of exploring this amazing UNESCO world heritage city.

Cáceres, like Evora, is not a major tourist spot and has next to nothing written about it in tourist information websites.   We picked these cities to visit because we needed to drive to Salamanca from the Algarve, Portugal and they happened to be en route.   Our happy discovery was that they both turned out to be quite remarkable cities because they are authentic and off the tourist path!

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Cáceres is a tiny city in the Extremadura region of Spain, the poorest and least populated region in Spain.  This region has very rough terrain and harsh, hot summers.  Driving on the deserted highways through this barren countryside is visible proof that this is a tough environment.

Cáceres was founded in 34 BC by the Romans and later conquered by the Moors. This walled city still contains about 30 medieval towers with the Islamic influence seen in the architecture. Cáceres was once home to wealthy families during the Renaissance who built magnificent palaces within the walls of the old fortifications.  Cáceres today has most likely kept its medieval feel due to the fact that the Extramadura region became less affluent and not heavily traversed by tourists.  There are no cars inside the historic center, no modern buildings, and very little retail and restaurants.  In fact, the further into the old town we went, the fewer people we saw.  It is a secret gem of a maze of small cobbled streets that open onto squares with beautiful Renaissance stone houses, churches, and monasteries. This was an amazing stop on our way through Extremadura Spain.

one of the many secret squares in the old town

one of the many paths (they all looked just like this!)

church letting out on our walk through the old town

After a lovely walk of losing ourselves in the cobbled maze of streets, we wandered out onto a big plaza lined with a few restaurants. We were hungry by this time and picked one with a terrace overlooking the plaza to eat lunch in the sun.  This was also the unfortunate opportunity for der Junge to discover that Texas Spanish is not the same as Extremadura Spanish as he was not able to decipher a thing on the menu!  Although to give him credit, he did just fine ordering... to my complete disappointment I ended up ordering what turned out to be a giant plate of melted cheese.  Der Junge felt bad and asked the waiter for a side of bread for me.  :( 

lunch overlooking a big open plaza

the plaza

next stop Salamanca!