Europe must have an enormous time zone from east to west. It’s June 9th here in Spain and the sun is rising just after 7:00 but doesn’t set till 21:50. This means one of the joys of the Camino is seeing daily sunrises.
Today’s destination Mèrida sat on the horizon for many km however there was no sprawling urban suburbs, you just come across some trees and the river Guadian, then the Puente Romano de Mérida, the 792m long arched bridge.
Mérida is an ancient Roman town built on the river in 100BC. There are no end of buildings, theatres, aqueducts, homes, graves…
The amphitheater
Theatre
What is called ‘Circo’ or circus but which is where chariots used to race. It’s huge at 433m x 114m and can accommodate 30,000 spectators. Of course I did a lap of honour.
My favourites are the aqueducts that kept the city in water. Remnants of them span the city but they brought water from up to 75km away.
Development here must be a nightmare. There are buildings built on stilts to avoid destruction of the underlying archeology that seems to be everywhere.
A ticket for accessing all of these historic places was a mere €8. I spent hours exploring and will add more details in due course. I have additional photos to include but they will have to wait till I'm at a pc.
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