Two old bats head home

But as we aren't in any hurry to get there, we are travelling via Extramadura. The original plan was to spend a couple of days exploring Galicia but, after adding up some miles, we decided it would be too much driving and settled for visiting Zamora and León and then spending a couple of days in Asturias/Cantabria before catching the ferry at Santander.
The first day however was just driving, to get us well on our way.

The hillside town of Estepa with its castle and old town at the top

The route went west towards Seville before turning north to follow the Via de la Plata which brought us to Caceres campsite. The essential coffee stop was in a motorway service area just short of Seville where I was thrilled to find some beautiful granite/migmatite paving!

Coffee :)

Beautiful paving slabs in the service area

Caceres campsite was quite luxurious! Sloping, but well terraced so that the individual pitches were level, there was plenty of shade, a table and a couple of chairs per pitch, and our own bathroom with shower, basin and loo. Wow!
Our goal for today is to visit Zamora, and then on to a campsite a little way south of León which should leave us well placed to take a look at the city that morning.

Thermal baths and romanesque churches

Resisting the temptation to revisit Salamanca we found our way on to Zamora, with a morning coffee stop at a spa - Baños de Montemayor - which has been in existence as a thermal bath since Roman times. A delightful place with old boys in towelling bathrobes, and old dears in slippers and housecoats tottering gently to and from treatments! 

The coffee was good, and so too were the craft shops where I got an esparto grass basket in lovely greens and blues, and a bottle of herbal liqueur. Not tried that yet!

Granite hills in Extramadura

We carried on to Zamora and, after a couple of goes, found somewhere under the trees to park the campervan by the river, from where it was a pleasant, fairly shady riverside walk to a bridge over the Duero river and up into the old town.

Wide empty motorway and dinosaur footprints in the sky!

We parked by the Duero and walked along the river bank and across a bridge into the town

Wetland alongside the Duero in Zamora

The old town of Zamora is built on a clifftop beside the River Duero

Half timbering and some stork nests

 Storks nests abound in Extramadura and Zamora was no exception with every corner of the tower taken on this Romanesque church. I was intrigued to see buildings with half-timbered upper stories, like we had seen in Cuenca. Wood must have been more freely available in the past?

The medieval bridge over the Duero is closed to traffic 

We crossed the river by the medieval bridge and found our way up through narrow streets into the old town, the cathedral and fort.

The old bridge has a modern parapet - concrete blocks and sections of metal railings: we were rather taken by the trompe d'oeil paintings of rugs which looked as though they had been thrown over the parapet for decoration.

Tromp d'oeil paintings of rugs adorn the parapet of the
medieval bridge

And another!

 Anyway, onward and upward to the promised Romanesque feast!

Zamora's old town

Flying buttresses across the street support this church wall

The church has an ornate west door

Another ornate door

Romanesque upper window and very slightly later doorway at the 12th century S Isidoro's church

The coarse conglomerate building stone from the cliff below

Storks on all available ledges

 The cathedral

First view of the cathedral, approaching from the east

Unusual decoration on a Romanesque arch - the Puerto del Obispo

Zamora's El Salvador Cathedral was built in just 23 years in the 12th century

A folding bench in the Cathedral precinct

The amazing stone clad dome of the Cathedral

The Cathedral's 45 m high bell tower was built in the 13th century

The castle

The original castle was built around the 11th century on pre-Roman foundations but little remains of any early structure.

Zamora castle. A collection of modern sculptures is displayed in the surrounding park

The castle is notable for the pentagonal tower to the right of the entrance (where there would have been a drawbridge over the surrounding moat.

The castle park

Another sculpture

 It was now about 2.30 pm and there were beginning to be stirrings of life - until now we had had Zamora pretty much to ourselves. We found a cafe opening and enjoyed a cold iced lemon before wandering back down to the van - with the thrill of seeing a kingfisher flying up the river on the way, and then on to the campsite at Valencia de Don Juan.