Touring the Peninsula With Matt

Introduction

Book Hotels in Spain
Book Hotels in Portugal
Location map for battles in Spain and Portugal
Portuguese Battlefield Guides
Spanish tours, suggestions, accommodation

By Matthew Mahabadi

The idea of visiting the sites of Wellington's battles in Spain and Portugal grew out of my reading of the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell.

I wanted to see for myself some of the battle sites the real armies of Wellington and Napoleon fought over. We had only two weeks in which to do this; and because it was to be a family holiday, the needs of my Grandparents; Derek and Judith, and my sister; Sara had to be taken into account as well.

So I concentrated on those sites that could be visited in short journey spans, and that Bernard Cornwell described as being still recognisable.

Another useful guide was The Peninsular War, 1807 - 1814 by Michael Glover.

The Itinerary

We sailed from Plymouth to Santander, and then made for Viveiro on the northern coast of Spain.

Although this was to be mainly a rest stop in an over-long journey, we visited the town and beach and saw some interesting historical and religious sites, too.

Santiago de Compostela was our first major stop. From there we made for Portugal: first, to another rest stop, at Guimaraes.

As well as having once been a capital of Portugal, it had also received a fleeting visit from French troops on their second retreat from that country in 1809.

We then moved on to Coimbra, which provided a useful base from which to visit the Bay of Figuera de Foz (Wellington's 1807 landing point), and Bussaco (1810).

After Coimbra, Almeida - a necessary "Wellington" visit in itself, but also a good base from which to reconnoitre the battle sites of Fuentes de Onoro, and Ciudad Rodrigo (1811).

Back in Spain, Salamanca was on my list because the battle site to the south of the city is still very much as it must have been in 1812.

Although Segovia was meant as a rest stop, it had sights of its own to offer (Roman aqueduct, Romanesque cathedral, Disney-esque castle and military museum).

At our Pamplona stop we had a fantastic hotel - but plenty of rain too. The heavy rain stayed with us on our journey over the Pyrenees, so that we saw nothing of Roncesvalles - a Pass fought over by Romans, Arabs, French and Spanish, as well as being an important "sideshow" on Wellington's march on Bayonne in 1813.

It happened that we had started our itinerary by following the pilgrims' route across northern Spain to Santiago; we finished our visit back on that same route, at Roncesvalles.

So there was more to our journey than Wellington's battle sites.

- Matt Mahabadi