Wellington in Spain tour with Nick Lipscombe

This 7 day tour started & ended at Madrid.  Nick Lipscombe who wrote the excellent Peninsular War Atlas was our guide, assisted by an efficient Leonie as tour manager & a very Spanish Alphonso driving the bus.  There were 22 in the party. Jim, Chris, Dale & SteveD from Camp Cromwell, 2 others from Oz, some Yanks, some Canadians & the rest poms including two interested wives.  They were an interesting mob, including wargamers, re-enactors, ex-military & colonel blimps, & we were never short of dinner conversation

Our route was Madrid-Talavera-Albeura-Badajoz-Elvas-Alacantra-Almeida-the Coa-Fuentes de Orno-Fort Conception-Cuidad Rodrigo-Salalmanca-Garciahernandez-Avila-Madrid.

Nick's took us to good vantage points for all the actions on the route & provided an excellent commentary on each battle & seige as well as the background of the war in general.

The accomodation was was always good & often quirky, like converted hospitals & convents in fortress towns, and best of all two nights at a hotel inside the ruined Fort Conception near Cuidad Rodriguo.

Medieval walls at Trujillo.

Albeura.

Badajoz.

View from hotel in Elvas.

The Roman bridge at Alcantara.

Our hotel in Fort Conception.

Almeida.

Fuentes de Orno village.

On the walls of Cuidad Rodrigo.  Nick Lipscombe is in the centre.

Coy Cromwell on the le Grande Arapil at Salamanca.  A great battlefield - not built over, lots of hills providing vantage points & an excellent interpretation by Nick.