On the Road Again!

It's Sunday. Up a little later. Washed. Dressed. Breakfast. Packing. Check out. The Parador here in Trujillo is marvellous. If you are a senior aged traveller there are discounts to be had when staying in the system. Now heading for the Roman world in Mérida. posted from Bloggeroid

Three hours of cobble pounding. From Plaza Mayor and the statue of Pizzaro, the Conquistador of Peru, to the Moorish Alcazaba and back down to the square. On the way are palaces built by the returning conquistadors. Some of the gates to the old city are even earlier and were built after the reconquest by the Catholics. Trujillo was reconquered some 200 years before Columbus "discovered" America. After the walking we stopped for lunch in Plaza Mayor. A beer for me and Diet Coke for Claire. Then back to the room for a siesta. posted from Bloggeroid

Up late. I set my alarm for 8am but in the night the phone turned itself off. Quick rush round washing and dressing them off to breakfast. The noisy group that woke us at 2 30am were there and just as noisy and irritating. What is it about the "Lexus Set" that pisses me off? Breakfast was very nice. Massive buffet and really nice coffee. For breakfast I like a 50/50 coffee milk ratio. Took some pix of where the nuns of old could chill. Although they might have had different tables and chairs. Off to pound the cobbles.... posted from Bloggeroid

After some faffing we picked up a 1.0 litre Polo. The TomTom fitted and we are off. An hour later we finally work our way to the non toll A5. Traffic quite horrendous. A warning for next Friday's return trip. By 5.30pm I was needing a walk. We stopped for a coffee. On the way we had been caught in a few torrential downpours. Traffic at a standstill occasionally as the wipers couldn't cope. Photo from right, passenger, side of the car. We arrived at the Parador in Trujillo about 7.30pm and checked in. Nice room. http://mobi.parador.es/en/paradores/parador-de-trujillo Nice floor.. posted from Bloggeroid

Arrived Madrid Terminal 4 quite promptly. Despite half term not starting until this evening there were loads of kids. Amazing that parents ignore the seat belts sign. Standing in the aisles and letting small children stand on the seats whilst we have seatbelt lights on. Sadly typical middle-class English who know better!! Once out. Another long walk. Got luggage and exited the airport. Car hire minibus easy to find.... We were the only customers on the bus. posted from Bloggeroid

Another juggle. Day 1 - Flight out to Madrid and Trujillo Parador to stay 2 nights. Day 3 - Mérida and stay 2 nights. Day 5 - Badajoz - one night Day 6 - Cáceres - two night Day 8 - Back to Madrid and flight home. Using this Rough Guide to read about the places to visit. To give us more time I have dropped one of the overnights and doubled up at Cáceres. Three weeks to go. Update 12th May 2018 Email British Airways. the return flight has been re-timed to be 1835 instead of 1805.  Not that it matters as we have to have the car back at about 1530.

Michelin 576 A few days sitting at home looking at the Michelin Map 576 and getting a "larger picture" of the trip means yet another update to the routing. All the hotels for the first night have been either too far to the north and way off the path between Madrid and the first Extremadura stop at Trujillo.  So yet another review using the map to see where places are has been helpful. I have changed the first night stop again. That's what is quite good about booking.com ! The chance to plan and chop and change as need be. The biggest change is that I have decided that when we arrive in Madrid and get the car, it will be about 3.30pm so instead of an overnight on the way we'll go straight to Trujillo. I logged into the Parador website and "modify booking" didn't work. Luckily, they had a chat option and a nice lady called Viktoria changed the booking to make it a day earlier. That of course freed up another day in the week. A bit of shuffling around and I...

After a look through the Rough Guide to Spain and then TripAdvisor a rough plan was established that we should do a clockwise circuit around the central region of the region. The distances involved in this trip won't be too great so we should have time for a good look around without too much driving about. I have booked another Parador in Trujillo for two nights. On the booking sites there weren't too many hotels available for our dates. I thought about an anti-clockwise trip around the circuit but that didn't help. So a quick trip to the Parador.es website and I signed us in there. I booked another hotel  in Mérida ,  Again for two nights. This one a little less luxurious but it looks very nice. As we have seven nights to play with, the above leaves two to book.   So I have gone ahead and booked a single night in Badajoz and the last night in Cáceres.  These are also decent looking hotels. We will have to get used to the standards after the Paradors.  That wi...