Extremadura Day 6

On Friday, my host spent the morning and early afternoon showing us around Cáceres. It was really fantastic to have a personal tour guide. This is not the easiest place to visit, and it's not a place non-Spanish speaking tourists frequent, so it was great to have someone to translate all of the information.

We started simply by seeing all of the important buildings in the old town, including walking a bit on the old city wall.

Apparently there is a history in Cáceres that everytime a new mayor is elected, he "redoes" the Plaza Mayor. We thought these letter blocks were a nice addition. You can also kind of see different patterns in the pavers making up the plaza. There are also some metal borders installed here and there. Our host told us that the most recent redesign was supposed to include a bunch of bluetooth-based interactive experiences. But apparently these have never worked.

This was inside the primary church in town. Apparently these alterpieces are *supposed* to be gilded and painted (see the one in the pictures from Trujillo), but this one was overlooked. It was stunningly beautiful.

View from the belltower.

So the first day we were in Cáceres, we stopped into the tourist office. We were told that the cistern, which is now within the Cáceres museum, was a must see. It is apparently the second most important cisterns in the world--second only to one in Istanbul. There was a contemporary art exhibit having something to do with gold foil going on while we were there.

In addition to the cistern and a bunch of other Extremaduran artifacts, there is also a small art gallery with some compelling works housed within.

After the long morning trek, we headed back to Plaza Mayor to find some lunch. We headed down through this little upper plaza, where crews were readying for some kind of concert.

After lunch, I we headed back to our hotel so I could finish up some work and we could rest up for dinner. We decided to wing it and try to visit a restaurant called Atrio, a two-star Michelin restaurant hidden in the streets of old town Cáceres. We walked in without a reservation, but they were completely able to accommodate us. Dinner started with a tour of the wine cellar, which included a special collection of this one French wine (I'm sure I'm supposed to be able to relate that story to you better):

This was the restaurant's wine list. We went with the sommelier-designed pairings.

I'm not sure how none of the food pictures made the blog photo cut. But there was wine. And food. Good wine. And good food.

On the way back to the hotel, we happened through this square again. Concert was in full swing. We hung around a bit before heading back.