Old Town of Cáceres and Thermal Baths at Alange · 217 km from Cáceres

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Old Town of Cáceres

   Cáceres has an old town so complete that film crews treat it as a ready-made set, and walking its streets at dusk, when the stone glows amber and the crowds have gone, you can see why. Inside the walls, built largely by the Almohads in the twelfth century, are dozens of fortified mansions, towers, churches and palaces, many built by noble families who made their fortunes in the conquest of the Americas. The towers once had battlements, but Queen Isabella ordered most of them cut down to curb the nobles' power. UNESCO listed the old town in 1986.

   Read the complete Old Town of Cáceres write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Old Town of Cáceres is where the day begins. Next is Proserpina Dam.

2. 2. Proserpina Dam

   The Romans built dams in Spain on a scale that still surprises engineers, and Proserpina, a few kilometres north of Mérida, is one of the best preserved. It was built in the first or second century AD to store water for Emerita Augusta, the provincial capital, which was fed by aqueduct from the lake. The dam is a massive earthen embankment faced with stone and backed by huge buttresses, some four hundred metres long, and it has held water for roughly nineteen centuries with repairs. The reservoir, a long green lake in a landscape of holm oak and rock, is now a place where local people fish, swim and walk.

   Read the complete Proserpina Dam write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Proserpina Dam comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Thermal Baths at Alange.

3. 3. Thermal Baths at Alange

   The Romans, who were serious about hot water, found a warm spring at Alange in what is now Extremadura and built a bathing complex around it, and the place is still used today. The Roman baths, about twenty kilometres from Mérida, include a domed chamber with stone benches and a pool fed by the spring, and the water comes out pleasantly warm, a gift in a dry country. The baths date from the time when Mérida, then called Emerita Augusta, was one of the great cities of Roman Spain, and wealthy citizens would travel here to relax and be cured.

   Read the complete Thermal Baths at Alange write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 111 km into the recorded legs you reach Thermal Baths at Alange. Next is back through Proserpina Dam.

4. 4. back through Proserpina Dam

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Proserpina Dam write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Proserpina Dam, late in the day. Next is Old Town of Cáceres.

5. 5. Old Town of Cáceres

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Old Town of Cáceres write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Old Town of Cáceres. That is the ride.