Jerte Valley and La Vera: Cherry Blossoms and Yuste Monastery

The Jerte Valley is one of the most striking natural spectacles in all of Spain and, paradoxically, one of the least known outside Extremadura. Every spring, between late March and mid-April, more than two million cherry trees blossom simultaneously across the valley's slopes, turning the mountains a dazzling white that, seen from the viewpoints along the N-110, looks like snow out of season. It is spectacular enough to draw tens of thousands of visitors during the two weeks the blossom lasts — but outside that window the valley empties out, and the roads winding between the cherry orchards are a rider's paradise of light traffic and constant bends.

The road climbing from Plasencia to the Puerto de Tornavacas (1,274 m) on the EX-203 is one of the finest in Extremadura: over 40 km of gradual ascent along the valley floor, with turnoffs to villages terraced into the slopes — Cabezuela del Valle, Jerte, Navaconcejo, Tornavacas — each with its square, its fountain, its stone-and-timber houses and its cherry trees. The Puerto de Tornavacas, on the border with Ávila, opens up views over the whole valley and is the route's turning point: from here you drop towards La Vera down the southern flank of the Sierra de Gredos.

La Vera is a district running parallel to the Jerte but with an entirely different character. Where the Jerte is a narrow, humid valley dominated by cherry trees, La Vera is a succession of gargantas — mountain torrents dropping off Gredos into natural pools — and villages built in half-timbered architecture of wood, adobe and stone, several of them World Heritage sites. Cuacos de Yuste, Villanueva de la Vera, Valverde de la Vera and Garganta la Olla preserve arcaded squares and medieval streets of an authenticity that is hard to believe.

The Monastery of Yuste, hidden among oak woods just outside Cuacos, is where Charles V — the most powerful ruler in the 16th-century world, king of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor, lord of half the Americas — chose to retire in 1556 to spend his final years in solitude and prayer. It is an austere Hieronymite monastery with an attached palace that includes a ramp so the emperor, crippled by gout, could be carried by litter directly from his bedchamber to the church. The visit is deeply evocative.

Practical notes: the best time is the cherry blossom (late March to mid-April), but the roads are excellent all year except in deep winter. The Puerto de Tornavacas can hold snow from December to February. For food, in Jerte the roast kid and the cherries (fresh in June, in aguardiente all year) are the star products. The Picota del Jerte — a stemless cherry with protected designation of origin — is the best cherry in Spain. Fuel in Plasencia.