Ah, Mérida, so good they named it, well, just once actually but it's so very lovely that by rights they really should have named it twice.
We visited Mérida today and we absolutely loved it. Loved it! It was the last day of our holiday and we wanted to go out with a bang, (especially after some of our earlier fizzles) and we did! Wednesday was spent in Guadalupe, Thursday was spent having a bit of an unscheduled disaster in Monfragüe and today was spent in Mérida. Our not wholly satisfactory trip to Guadalupe has already been documented on a previous post. Our trip to Monfragüe hasn't been documented, and won't be. I don't feel I could bear to relive the day again in any detail, but I can summarise it in a few poignant phrases. From these you may get a hint of how 'well' it went.
1. The petrol gauge in the car suddenly plummets to empty.
2. The only petrol station for miles is closed.
3. We find ourselves travelling on hope and fumes to the next one.
4. Daddy reverses the car into a wall - back bumper is cracked and hanging off.
5. We discover that Daddy has forgotten to pack the picnic that Mummy lovingly made.
6. Daddy drives the car into a wall while parking - front bumper is damaged.
7. Children comment, "Daddy keeps breaking the car."
8. Daddy shatters the iPod but doesn't know how.
9. Mummy comments, "Daddy is breaking everything."
10. Daddy comments, "None of it is my fault."
11. Nobody believes him.
12. We are all relieved to eventually get home, where we find the picnic in the kitchen and then some duct tape to stop the iPod from disintegrating completely.
So you see, by Friday we were in need of a more successful day out. Having first made sure that the picnic bag was actually in the car we set off. We stopped at Alange on the way to have our picnic and as we drove into the town I tweeted a woman called Sue who I follow on Twitter and who posts wonderful photos of Alange sunsets every evening. I told her that we were visiting her town and she immediately tweeted back that we should head to the beach as it would be a fantastic place to stop. As we found the beach and I tweeted back that we had located it and that yes, it was indeed a fantastic place. She then sent me a tweet back with the caption "is this you?" It was a photo of our car and the four of us sat at a bench, taken from the other side of the lake where she lives! "Yes!" I replied, amazed. 10 minutes later a car pulled up next to ours and it was Sue come to say hello! Well, Sue is the loveliest stranger you could ever hope to meet! She told us all sorts of interesting information about Alange and then gave us some hints on what to do in Mérida. It was so strange to think that through the magic of social media I was talking to a lady who I hadn't know previously but whose tweets I have enjoyed following for some time! Social media certainly makes the world a much smaller place. Unfortunately our meeting came to an abrupt end when Henry had a sudden and rather urgent 'toileting' need and we had to set off to find somewhere suitable to cater for it!
It only took about 15 minutes to get to Mérida from Alange and following the advice that Sue had given us we parked next to the lovely Roman bridge and walked across it to get to the town. Our boys aren't too big on history (of which there is a lot in Mérida) and this might become clear when I tell you that these were the boys' favourite things to do there,
1. Take a ride on the little yellow tourist train that takes you around Mérida showing you the sights and landmarks.
2. Stop at the little cake shop near the square where they could stuff themselves with donuts and hot chocolate!
3. Try to walk on the cobbled streets without stepping on the gaps.
So you see, I can't really comment on the bountiful, historical richness of Mérida but I can comment on the beauty and welcoming atmosphere that it had. The people were friendly and went out of their way to point us towards places that would be fun for the children and we all really enjoyed being there.
The tourist train was fun. It departed from the amphitheatre and for 30 minutes it took us around the local places of interest, complete with commentary by a very happy and helpful man. It did seem to take us into some dubious looking areas though. We travelled through some areas dotted with littered wasteland and graffitied blocks of flats but that was where the ruins were so that was where we went! It was very hard to hear the commentary about the historical sites because Henry kept asking "what's that mummy?" and "are we going to get a donut soon?" throughout. I only caught a few snatches of important dates and occasional, isolated words like 'iron', 'train' and '73' so I really don't feel that I have any better understanding of Mérida's history now than I did before the train ride, but it was a pleasant way to spend the time.
We found the spectacular Temple of Diana too and we even managed to take a quick photo of the boys (momentarily) standing still in front of it before we had to usher them away for playing a game that involved taking it in turns to push each other which meant that they got getting dangerously close to photobombing everybody else's photos. Instead the game continued as we walked up a pedestrianised shopping street and the boys pushed each other into shop doorways, bins and various foliage.
Actually, the only time that they were quiet was in the donut shop where we enjoyed a glorious couple of tranquil, noise free minutes while they ate. But that is the joy of travelling with children. Well, with our children. We get to visit some wonderful places, and Mérida is definitely one of those, but we don't really get to see them in too much depth. We do get to eat a lot of donuts though, so it's not all bad!
We were sad to leave Mérida and as we walked/pushed our way across the Roman bridge we decided to return next time we visited Extremadura.
So, brace yourselves tourists and residents of Mérida.
We're coming back!