What you can see on the La Vera webcams
At the eastern end of the valley, a camera in Madrigal de la Vera looks north up a forested mountainside to the granite crest of central Gredos, where the Almanzor, the highest peak of the range, stands more than 2,000 m (6,500 ft) above the village. At the western end, a weather camera in Aldeanueva de la Vera looks south over the wooded slopes and terraces of the valley, with the edge of the village on the right. Both print the local weather readings on the picture and play on Windy as time-lapses of the day.
The Almanzor and the Gredos crest from Madrigal de la Vera
This is a private weather camera in Madrigal de la Vera, the easternmost village of La Vera, shared on Windy. It looks north, over the roofs of a few houses and the crowns of the trees on the edge of the village, to a steep mountainside of pine plantations, scrub and bare ground, and above it to the grey granite crest of central Gredos, with the Almanzor among the peaks. A bar across the top gives the temperature, the day's maximum and minimum and the rainfall.
It is the best way to see conditions on the high mountains from the valley: the first snow on the crest in autumn, the snow line creeping down in a cold spell, or the peaks lost in cloud. Windy plays it as a time-lapse of the day.
The valley from Aldeanueva de la Vera
A weather station in Aldeanueva de la Vera, at the western end of the valley, runs this camera and prints its readings along the bottom of the picture: temperature, rainfall, pressure and wind, with the time in UTC, an hour behind Spain in winter and two in summer. It looks south from the edge of the village over a deep fold of the valley, with terraces and small farmhouses on the slopes on the left, thick woods in the middle and a long wooded ridge closing the view; the last houses of Aldeanueva and the road into the village are on the right.
Facing the midday sun, it is clearest in the morning and evening. It shows the haze of a summer day and the changing colour of the woods. Windy plays it as a time-lapse of the day.
Paprika, gargantas and an emperor
The red peppers of La Vera are dried slowly over oak smoke and ground into pimentón de la Vera, which has had a protected designation of origin since 2007. The mountain streams, called gargantas, form clear pools among the granite boulders that fill with bathers in summer; at Madrigal, an old stone bridge known as the Roman bridge crosses the Garganta de Alardos. In 1557 the Emperor Charles V retired to the monastery of Yuste, near Cuacos, where he died the following year.
When to watch La Vera
Spain is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The mountains shelter La Vera from the north, so its winters are mild in the valley while the peaks above are white, and the Madrigal camera shows the snow line coming and going from late autumn to spring. Summers are hot, which is when the pools come into their own. The Aldeanueva camera faces south, into the sun in the middle of the day; mornings and evenings give the clearest picture.
Around La Vera
The road along the valley links a string of villages with half-timbered houses and wooden balconies, among them Jarandilla, Losar and Valverde de la Vera. Over the mountains, on the northern side, lie the villages and peaks of the Sierra de Gredos, and to the north-west the Jerte valley, famous for its cherry blossom in spring.
Getting to La Vera
Madrigal de la Vera is about 128 miles (205 km) from Madrid-Barajas airport by road, and Aldeanueva about 23 miles (37 km) further west. Plasencia, the nearest city, is about 51 miles (82 km) from Madrigal.
