Badajoz, Spain - 28 October 2018

28 October

Strangely had a good nights sleep! Even stranger, we gained an hour being in Portugal, we’re now in Spain - and have lost it! Back to being one hour ahead of Guernsey - I think!

Tintin drove. First Intermarche for fuel. Was quite tight getting into and out of, Dave was brushed by an Oleander bush! Also, wouldn’t accept our FX card, so had to use cash.

The 90 minute drive today was on ‘A’ roads, really pleasant, virtually no towns to slow down for, very little traffic - pleasant scenery with lots of cork oak trees - and lots of sheep 🐑 today.  Saw at least three hilltop towns in passing.

Very unceremonious changing country - blink and you miss it! We arrived at:

Badajoz (Spain) - free

Described as a popular Aire adjacent to riverside park. Most of the centre was destroyed by Nationalists in the 1936 Battle of Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War, and thousands of civilians were massacred following the seizure of the town. The Aire is tarmac, clean and well located - winner! Plus, lots of good natured geese nearby.

After another avocado salad for lunch, went off walking for a couple of hours - and over 8,000 steps - still don’t think my phone is that accurate. However, can’t be bothered to get my pedometer out, because it is what it is - we won’t walk further just to get the 10,000 steps in! Don’t think it registers when I’m holding it and taking photos all the time!

Walked across the pedestrianised old river bridge to the historic area. The entrance is called the Door of Palmas. Being Sunday, most shops were shut. Walked into a plaza, very impressive looking town hall, also the cathedral is so big, couldn’t fit it all in one photo! Pretty ‘flags’ all strung together overhead on the streets. Walked into another plaza with the building with pretty colourful arches and walls - from there saw the 12th century octagonal Torre Espantaperros.

Overlooking the city is the Alcazaba (citadel) of Badajoz which is the largest Arabic monument in the whole of Spain. It was built by Almohads in the 12th century, but probably existed in the 9th century. It has an oval layout, fortified outposts, numerous towers and three main gates. For the construction they built large wooden boxes, then filled them with compressed earth, then they used adobe (a form of clay) and built. We were able to walk around the entire walls. It has been carefully restored, and there are information points all around (in English too). Lovely vantage points too!

On the way we had passed a little shop selling roast chicken, the smell was delicious - so on the way back we bought one for tea - (€9) well it is Sunday - and we do miss our family roasts, especially as the weather is now much colder.

Oh, do I need to mention that everything was free to look around. Haven’t got over yesterday yet!  We did get more cash out today - need to be prepared!

Also, I can’t get over my good value Spanish data card for my phone.  Whilst in Portugal it gave me 6GB to use in addition to the 20GB. Apparently I still have 19GB left, lots of minutes and 1000 SMS.  We have used it so much, it’s slower than our Vodafone SIM - but I’m convinced that using the Vodafone connection uses up data more quickly! Just a shame we can’t use it to download from iPlayer!