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The archives include Travel and Social events from 2010

NADFAS Trip to Merida and Caceres, Extremadura, 22 – 25 March 2010

Despite ominous forecasts we had the usual good NADFAS weather and  had a good journey through verdant, rolling countryside with storks everywhere.  (We later learned that the population of storks is higher than that of people in Extremadura).  We had an excellent lunch in Monasterio and stopped for a stroll through the graceful, eighteenth century town of Zafra, with its two quaint, arcaded plazas.

Next day in Merida we made straight for the Roman theatre and amphitheatre, which served this important capital of Lusitania and colony for veteran soldiers, Augusta Emerita, founded by Emperor Augustus in 25 BC.  Both theatres are impressive in their size and situation on a hill to avoid the wind.  The amphitheatre is not so well preserved but held 15,000 spectators and along with the relief of gladiators and a painting of a gladiator facing a lion in the local museum, came alive for us.  The elaborate theatre is one of the best preserved anywhere in the Roman empire. An inscription shows it was the gift of Agripa to the city. The front of the stage, two stories of Corinthian marble columns topped with pediments, 2.60 metres high, is imposing. The original statues of gods or emperors, replaced by replicas, can be seen in the museum.  The orchestra is complete with almost all its original paving stones.  You can still see the peristilum surrounded by a portico where the spectators would stroll between performances and the actors' dressing rooms. The terraces are well preserved and would have seated around 6,000 spectators. 

We all enjoyed the National Theatre of Roman Art, built in 1975 to celebrate Merida's 2,000 year anniversary.  It is huge and houses only Roman remains from the city.  We had a superb overview of life in this Roman colony with exhibits ranging from large statues and plaques from the theatre and Forum, busts of Augustus and Agrippina, and beautiful bronzes,  to exquisite, tiny hair pins, buttons, needles, and a dice and shaker. There are many outstanding mosaics on the walls, a fine collection of glassware and ceramics, and more objects from daily life.

Later on we were taken to the longest Roman bridge in the world, 792 metres long and so well constructed that it was in use until 1993; it serves now as a pedestrian bridge, known popularly as Cholesterol Bridge.  Our excellent guide told us that the architect of the new Lusitania bridge, Calatrava, directed a particularly heavy load over the Roman bridge as he feared for his own; it survived of course.  We passed by the Roman Circus, a large space for chariot races, and the Proserpina-los Milagros aqueduct with its soaring pillars topped with storks' nests.  We walked through the remains of several Roman houses noting private baths, a dining room with attractive fish mosaics and many more mosaics, some of which we were able to walk on.  A portion of the main road, the Decumanus, is still extant.  We were also able to explore the Muslim Alcazaba, the earliest in Spain dating from 835 AD, as we know from the Arabic inscription `in situ'.  We descended into the dank cistern where river water was purified by lime and the water transported by donkeys.  Some fine Visigothic carved pillars had been re-used.  The well-preserved Temple of Diana completed our Roman visit by which time we were more than ready for dinner.

Caceres was equally enthralling as a very well-preserved, fifteenth century walled town with no modern architecture to mar it. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986. Alfonso IX finally took the city from the Moors in 1229 and it was then occupied by aristocratic families from the North of the peninsula.  Many of the palaces and mansions were built then.  For a while the aristocratic families feuded with each other and there are many examples of fortress-houses with defensive towers, reminiscent of Renaisance Italy.  Our guide pointed out that some of the tops of  the palaces were cut off because its owners did not support Isabella of Castile in her fight for the crown.. There are many beautiful mansions but when we went inside one we were surprised by the relatively small-sized rooms.  The buildings are huddled together within the defensive walls with arrow slits in towers and balconies in monochrome shades of brown, making us feel as if we had walked back in time.  The church of Santa Maria is exquisite, poised between Gothic and Renaissance styles and with a beautiful ungilded altarpiece made from cedar wood.  Our guide told us that during the Civil War in 1937 some bombs fell on the church and 36 people were killed inside.  The guide's grandmother, who was 17, was saved because of her short stature, protected by the bodies of others.  We saw a private art collection, mid-eighteenth century cisterns built by the Jesuits, the House of the Monkey (it has a stone statue of one on the staircase), the Episcopal Palace, the house where a follower of Cortes brought back a daughter of Montezuma as his bride, another where Franco had himself proclaimed generalisimo and head of state in 1936, and much more.  Our final visit was one of the best.  We were taken to a field outside the town.  The nearby hotel, tired of nesting storks on their roof, had constructed fifty or so wooden posts in the next-door field.  Each one was topped by a huge, 30 kg nest, with one or two magnificent storks.  We were able to get up close and marvel.

We had a pleasant journey back and had a memorable lunch in a finca near Jerez.  Another successful NADFAS trip!

                                        Arts and Crafts Day 2010
                                            Tamisa Golf Hotel

Have you ever been to a posh art auction? You know, the ones where artwork can go for thousands of euros? I did, a few weeks ago, invited only because I once bought a print in the Hotelīs gift-shop. It was an eye-opener. Packed with women with full red lips and outlandish fashion, you could imagine a long-stemmed cigarette holder in the Prada handbag. The men all seemed to be broad-shouldered, chisel-cheeked Frenchmen, whose smouldering glances
captured those of many a half-swooning, dewy-eyed admirer.

It was just like being in a Penny Vincenci novel!
But it wasnīt a jolly occasion. It was hard-nosed bargaining, jealousies galore, and those who had imbibed a bit too much, perhaps.

Not a bit like our own Arts and Crafts Day, held in those lovely surroundings of the Tamisa Golf Hotel, where everybody liked each other, the women wore pretty summer dresses, the men elegant and comfortable in their blazers, with jolly conversation, cameraderie and laughter abounding.
These pictures tell the story of our lovely day.

                                           End-of-Season Dinner 2010
                                                   Tamisa Golf Hotel