The Romans took bathing seriously, and the evidence is everywhere in Mérida. This particular bath complex was found beneath an ordinary street, as so much of the city's Roman heritage is, and it is typical of what the town offers: a modest excavation tucked into the urban fabric, a few steps down from the pavement, where you can look at brick floors, the channels under them and the stubs of walls that once held hot air. It is not a grand imperial bath of the kind that fills a city block. It is a neighbourhood facility, and that is its charm.
The principle was simple and clever. A furnace heated air that circulated beneath raised floors and through hollow walls, so that the rooms warmed unevenly, from hot to tepid to cold, and bathers moved through them in sequence. Water came from the aqueducts that crossed the plain, and a drain carried it off again. A visit to the baths was a social event as much as a hygienic one, a chance to do business, gossip and exercise, and there were fees low enough that ordinary people could afford them. Looking at the layout, you start to see Mérida as a city of citizens rather than only a collection of monuments.
Riding in Mérida is a pleasure of the gentle kind. The historic centre is compact, much of it pedestrian or with restricted traffic, so leave the bike near the edge and walk the last few streets. Outside the town the roads run flat across the Guadiana plain, past olive trees, almonds and fields of tomatoes, then lift into low hills with more curves. Heat is the big factor from June to September, with afternoon temperatures that make asphalt soft, so the early morning is your friend. Spring is gentler, with green fields dotted with poppies.
Fuel is easy within the town, with Calamonte offering extra supermarkets and stations a short ride away. For a drink, find a shaded terrace and order a caña, a small beer, which in Extremadura usually arrives with a free plate of something salty. The air in the evening smells of hot stone and jasmine, and the swifts scream overhead as the light fades.