June 11, 2009
Date: 15 BC
Location: Merida, Spain
These two theaters were built by the Romans and are among some of the best preserved Roman ruins in the area. The amphitheater is still used today for performances. I first visited the theater which would more likely called a stadium today.
Roman Theater
June 11, 2009
Architect: Rafael Moneo
Date: 1980-1985
Location: Merida, Spain
The National Museum of Roman Art was built to display the Roman artifacts from around Spain. It was designed to use the Roman style as a source of style. The entire building appears to be constructed from Brick but instead the brick is a fromwork for the reinforced concrete. From the outside the building tries to not appear massive through the use of buttresses that line the main street facade.
National Museum of Roman Art Exterior
June 11, 2009
Merida is an interesting town because it takes at most half an hour to walk to any point in the city, assuming you don’t take the long way. Even when we went to the bus station to get tickets to Merida from Sevilla the attendant asked What is in Merida? Still we stopped there and in terms of architecture this city has some pretty interesting buildings. We started the day in Plaza de Espana.
Plaza de Espana
From there we headed up to the National Museum of Roman Art. On the way we passed the Templo de Diana, an ancient Roman temple that is currently being restored.
Templo de Diana
After the National Museum of Roman Art we headed over to the Roman Amphitheater and Theater. That was the end of our day in Merida.
June 6, 2009
We had an extra day off and after the week in Madrid we spent it relaxing. At night we had a ride on the RENFE AVE train from Atocha Station. This was the first major high speed rail line built in Spain. In terms of using this over air travel I am totally for the train because the time is not much different and the amount of time you need to arrive before departure is minimal. It is possible to show up to the train 15 minutes before it leaves and make it on without having issues. Also, unlike airlines, the trains are very reliant with RENFE giving a guarantee that if a train is more than 20 minutes late you get a 100% refund (I would like to see an airline do that and stay in business).
The train ride was great and we just had a short walk to the hostel when we got to Cordoba. In Cordoba we stayed at the Hosteling International – Instalacion Juvenil which was a very nice hostel that was simple but provided free breakfast. After we got in the hostel we went out and took a walk to see what was around and found we were just 5 minutes from the meeting point on the Roman bridge.
