Post-camino: Mérida

Well, for all that we thought we wanted, and needed, to rest and relax after the exertions of our section of the Camino Mozarabe, our time in Mérida was quite busy. We had visited in 2019 on our walk along the Vía de la Plata, but had only had one rest day and so had really been only to take in the top sites. Returning to this gem had been a key factor in settling on the Mozarabe as our route to walk.

We started with the Alcazaba—as wonderful as we’d remembered and in the early morning light just enchanting. We arrived ten minutes before the 9:00 am opening time so we walked half way across the Roman Bridge to kill time. We were first in, purchasing our combined historical-archaeological ticket which includes eight sites for €16. It was decidedly magical to have the site all to ourselves for the first half hour or so. From the walls you can climb up onto, the views to the Roman Bridge and the Guadiana River are spectacular.

We developed a bit of a churros y chocolate habit in Mérida, discovering the excellent – and always busy – Másque Churros in the Puerta de la Villa plaza, which was handily near our apartment. Cups of thick steaming chocolate were poured from an enormous vat, while the churros were cooked in a large spiral in the vat of oil then cut with scissors into pieces and served on a stone board. Our waistbands were glad we hadn’t succumbed to this earlier!

With our four day stay, we actually had time to visit all of the eight sites on the combined ticket enjoying the less visited Morería Archaeological Site, the Templo de Diana as well as the Casa del Mitreo and Columbarium site out on the edge of town. Because Dec 6th and December 8th are both holidays, we were in the midst of what in Spain is known as the “super puente”, puente meaning bridge because you take an extra day to make a long weekend, or in this case a five day weekend. So even these less visited sites got busy as the afternoon worn on and restaurants were busy.

Given the late afternoon crowds we’d seen at the teatro/anfiteatro complex on our first day, we decided we’d make that our 9:00am destination on our second day. And again we were the first ones in and basically had each area to ourselves which was wonderful. I’m such a sucker for the Roman theatre with its tiers of seats and immense pillars—it would be amazing to be here for the summer theatre festival but way too hot.

In the afternoon we paid a visit to the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, which I fell in love with on our first visit, declaring it to be one of the best I’d ever been too. And a second visit didn’t disappoint. We had timed it so many people would still be eating lunch and for the most part it was not too busy, but with the crowd growing as the afternoon wore on. The museum houses the original statues from the theatre (with the ones at the theatre being reproductions) as well as an amazing collection of mosaics, other statuary, glassware, ceramics and coins.

In addition to the super puente, this was a big weekend as it starts the jubilee year of the patron saint of Mérida, Santa Eulalia. The Basilica of Santa Eulalia was just two blocks away from our apartment so we watched the start of the procession of her statue down to the cathedral, where it would rest overnight and then process back on the Sunday. A highlight early Sunday morning was watching  a group of floral designers put the finishing touches on the floral carpet across from the basilica. They must have worked through the night to get it finished and it was spectacular.

There is also a Museum of Visigoth Art. I really love the floral designs on the white marble and this was a beautiful display. It also happened to be the location of the Playmobil Belén (nativity scene) so that was pretty fun!

One of our other favourite new-to-us sites was the Casa Anfiteatro, located across a plaza from the amphitheatre/theatre complex. It’s a spectacular house with so many beautiful mosaics. Seeing them in the museum was amazing but in situ, even more impressive.

We very much enjoyed our apartment with its great location and well equipped kitchen. We also appreciated that it was a whole building of tourist apartments so specifically for visitors. But a few days in the hot water gave up and there was a leak under the sink. Because of the holiday, they couldn’t get the maintenance people in but another apartment was being vacated so after it was cleaned we were able to move which was great as we knew otherwise we’d find it hard to enjoy our last bit of time.

We did lots of our own meal preparation, especially enjoying being able to make breakfasts at home and at other times eat when we felt like it. But we also wanted to enjoy some meals out and had a lovely tapas meal sitting outside at Bar Volterra on Calle San Francisco and a delicious menú del día at Casa Maria, which we remembered from our previous trip.

Our final stop on the combined ticket was the Crypt of Santa Eulalia—another unexpected gem. There’s a little interpretive area with maquettes about the different stages—Roman houses, Christian necropolis and early church and then present basilica. Then you descend to the crypt and you’re underneath seeing it all—including the massive pillar bases of the current building.

There were a couple more processions to watch as the holiday in Mérida extended to December 10th, which being a Sunday meant most things were closed Monday. We fit in some gift shopping as now that we were  done walking we could think abut presents (and we’d get home not long before Christmas). The Christmas market was fun to wander through and we loved watching all the happy families taking in the Christmas-themed rides. And, you guessed it, it was just across from our apartment!

We picked up our train tickets to Badajoz, the first leg of our train adventure to Lisbon where we’d catch our return flight. Roasted chestnuts and people watching wrapped up our last evening. Just time to fold up our poles, get some of the mud off our boots that we hadn’t needed to wear these last days, fit everything back in our packs and bid a wistful goodbye to the Camino Mozarabe. Or at least until we think about the variant starting in Almería!