Winter is coming
Today was a rest day in Caceres. It’s taken my whole time here just to learn how to spell it. It’s a town that dates back to Bronze Age inhabitants however better known for its Roman, Muslim then Christian occupation over last 2000 + years.
So well preserved is the old city that UNESCO has placed it on its list of historical towns and the movie industry has exploited its authenticity to film.
Best known as a backdrop for scenes in ‘Game of Thrones’ and the prequel ‘ The house of Dragons’. Back to that later.
The city is one of those ancient mazes where you need to drop twisties to find your way back to your hotel. Greg was going off for a haircut today and to ensure we saw Greg again we dropped a location pin on his phone.
We headed off for the day into the old city. First off was to some turrets and 50 metres of the old wall open to the public , at a price of course ! After this we headed up to the main cathedral. There are a lot of churches including the one to Santiago, however this is the main gig. On entry it was 5 euros until eagle eye Pen saw the pilgrim sign. Show your credentials and entry is free . Well that was worth the 250 km cycling on any day.
Another ornate Spanish churches it was a thing of beauty. Ceilings , alter pieces , sacristy. Before leaving we climbed the bell tower . Looking around at the huge bells we then remembered the time 11:55 …… time to get out of here before the noise.
As we were walking around the old town props for filming were stored everywhere and work was going on to prepare for location day so much so that we had to detour up a 100 stairs to get around one closure.
Next we saw the Caceres museum. It had great artefact dating back to the Bronze Age. That came well before the aluminium age apparently. The highlight was the little gem under. A cistern dating back 1800 years that repurposed Roman columns to support it. A cistern is a water collection pit used to collect rainwater for drinking. Bit like they make us do now on new buildings…… how old is new again I suppose.
Back to the apartment we had a little siesta ( I paid for it later in night by not not sleeping ) before having a nice salad for dinner.
In a better photographic light we headed back into the movie set and found our way to the church of Santiago. Adorned with Camino shells or conches ( shell in Spanish really ! ) we had found Camino HQ of Caceres. Mass was still on so we respectfully waited for the final amen before we approached the PP for a sello or Camino stamp from the church.
Now back to the movie making. First suggestion that it was filming day was when Pen saw 50 extras all dressed up walk past the apartment we staying in. A little while later we ventured back to the main square to make it just in time to see them film a sequence. Really interesting to see. 
Having to be out by midday we headed back collected our bikes and headed to the railway station. A short trip up the road before we get back on our bikes tomorrow.
