Boys-R-Us: Spain: Segovia

On Friday of our trip, we were taken on another day trip out of Madrid. This time we were bussed an hour and a half ride up into the mountains of Spain to visit the city of Segovia. The drive to Segovia was much more interesting and beautiful than the bleak drive through La Mancha the day before. The giant cross was huge and we could see it from miles away!

This area really reminded me of Italy. We saw a lot of cattle grazing, and couldn't help but wonder if any of the bulls would someday end up in the ring with a matador.

Mapfre, the company that so graciously sent us to Spain is very big there and we saw their offices everywhere.

Segovia! What can I say about Segovia? It is another medieval city, much like Toledo and other medieval cities... but with one distinctive feature.

See the stone wall with the arches? As we were driving we saw a short stone wall cutting through town, and as we drove along it, it got taller and taller, and then the arches appeared as it got taller. Then we turned a corner and drove downhill, and when the bus turned back again we saw this...

The Aqueducto!!!

A real Roman aqueduct build roughly 2000 years ago. It is 13 miles long coming form the nearby mountains. Most of it is completely underground, but a couple miles of it are above ground, and the tallest portion, nearly 7 stories high, runs right through the city of Segovia.

This aqueduct is truly one of the coolest things I have ever seen! Really mind blowing when you stand underneath. I love the reflection of it in my friend Ann's sunglasses.

The aqueducts were made without mortar of any kind. The stones were cut so precisely that they fit together so well that they can be stacked up. It really is a marvel of engineering!

It is wild to stand under those tall arches and try to imagine what it took to build that without today's machinery and technology. I tried to imagine it covered with scaffolding, and how they were able to lift those large stones way up there, probably with slave labor - lots and lots of them! It is really hard to imagine.

But there is so much more to Segovia than the Aqueduct.

Segovia is beautiful! Different from Toledo in many ways, but just as old and charming.

The architecture in Segovia is just fantastic! Most of the buildings have the coolest patterned relief designs on the facades. I haven't really seen anything like that before, but here it is everywhere. Interesting patterns and textures with fine details.

Unlike the winding narrow streets of Toledo, there was one main street running through the oldest part of town that ran from the aqueduct to the castle, so we were in less danger of getting lost.

I loved the window boxes spilling over with flowers!

Aren't those walls just cool?

In the middle of the old city is a large square with a a gigantic Gothic church. The guide told us that this church was the very last cathedral to be built in the Gothic style, complete with flying buttresses and gargoyles. Can't have Gothic without flying buttresses and gargoyles, can we?

The hundreds of knobby spires were just cool.

The same square also had some government buildings...

... And a theater with a good old gazebo right in the center.

A few old ladies were selling beautiful Spanish shawls. Of course, we were taken in. Dennis did some good negotiating, and I chose a beautiful green shawl embroidered with colorful roses and flowers, and a gorgeous black lacy shawl the was beaded with roses. Unfortunately, when we got all the way back to the hotel later and opened the bag we saw that we had been taken! The green shawl was there, but instead of of large, lovely beaded lace black shawl, there was a tiny little cheap black thing with plastic beads!!! By the time we discovered we were victims of the old switcheroo, it was too late to do anything about it. I was so mad!

What is with this lion sticking his tongue out?

See the lady shaking out her rug? What would it be like to live in a place like this?

Hi kitty, kitty!

At the end of the road through town is this fancy gate announcing the entrance to the castle of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella - Alcazar Castle!

Now this is a true fairytale castle with a moat and turrets and everything! Cinderella would be proud!

The view down from the castle wall.

The princess in me was loving this!

The view into the moat from the bridge. Very interesting.

And there is my prince charming!

A royal welcome to Alcazar castle!

The walls are patterned with circles and inset with chunks of iron. Look at those gigantic heavy doors!

Old armor. Check out those long pointy shoes. I can imagine what they would use those for. Ouch. And look at that short little suit of armor. Who would have possible worn that? It makes Dennis look like a giant.

Horses get armor too!

The royal dining hall was actually quite small, but I loved the blue tile work and the beamed ceilings.

But the ceilings of the next room were simply incredible!

This was the throne room - and these are the actual thrones of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. They are always mentioned together because they actually ruled jointly. She was an amazing woman who insisted on having equal power with her husband and many of the responsibilities were split right down the middle, and with her half she did as she thought best. She was considered a great queen. Of course, it was Queen Isabella who commissioned Christopher Columbus to find a new route to the East.

Beautiful stained glass windows and more incredible gilded ceilings. The giant mural of Queen Isabella is actually a contempory work. It was really beautiful.

Another large room had reliefs of all of the kings and queens and a list of their accomplishments below them - and more incredible ceilings.

The views out of the castle to the valley below.

This is queen Isabella's bedroom, and her actual bed.

Great tile work!

In the castle's own chapel.

From there we went outside to see the turrets and battlements of Alcazar. It was so pretty up here!!!

There was a geometric garden down below.

You could see the enemy coming for miles from here.

Fun picture, huh? We were having a great day together!

Back inside we saw an armory with more suits of armor, and old spears, cannons, and cross bows.

I kept thinking how my boys would have loved this place!

The courtyard of Alcazar.

Heading back outside with another view of the huge door and the moat.

Alcazar was beautiful!

Making our way back through the old city of Segovia.

We wandered off on our own down some quiet streets. Not so much the danger of getting lost here as there was in Toledo.

You just can't help but peek down every small street and alleyway (hard to tell the difference in these old cities sometimes.) Everything is so picturesque!

In the window of a meat market - the famous Spanish chorizo and jamon. Check out that Iberico ham - nearly 80 euros per kilo. That is over $100 per kilo, or nearly $50 per pound! That is why we ate as much of the stuff as we could while we were there.

We had walked by this building earlier that morning, but now I loved the patterns of light made by the afternoon sun. Very cool.

Time to eat. There were a lot of interesting restaurants along that main street, but we were promised something even more special for lunch.

We had lunch at this famous old restaurant right in the shadows of the amazing aqueduct- Candido! How cool is that?

Look at the great old fascade of this place!

I was hoping that we would be eating out under the umbrellas with the aqueduct looming overhead.

But they took us instead to the large upper room with beamed ceilings and multi-paned amber windows.

Th view out the old yellow windows was terrific. The aqueduct was right there!

I took the shot above leaning out of the window. You can see how the aqueduct gets shorter as the elevation rises.

The decor was old and rustic and of course there were a fair number of hams hanging from the ceiling - always a sign of a respectable establishment in Spain.

Another long, long lunch that took a few hours. It started with some good bread, of course, and a yummy salad (one of the few good salads we had in Spain). Then the servers brought out a series of appetizers - tapas - as is Spanish tradition, including chorizo, of course, and those yummy stuffed roasted red peppers that that gentleman is serving up. I had seconds and thirds of those!

Next came the soup. Now, I have to tell you about the soup. First, it contained the biggest beans I have ever seen. Spain is famous for these huge white beans and you can get them in the souvenir shops, so I was glad to get to try them. The soup also had chorizo, of course, and one other mystery ingredient. It was fleshy and chewy, and I couldn't eat it! People were speculating on what it was. Someone suggested tripe. Ew. But when asked the waiter cleared it right up for us... He was very proud of their PIG EAR SOUP! Yep. Pigs ears. Only in Spain. They sure love their pigs here! The soup was actually pretty good, and luckily the pigs ears were in large enough chunks that they were easily avoided.
The main meal was simply a half of a roasted chicken and some fries. I have said it before, food in Spain is very rustic. Even in the fanciest of restaurants you get pig ear soup and a half chicken.
I must, however, say that the hot lava cake for desert was incredible! It was worth nibbling on a pig ear to get to that!

A picture of the top floor where we ate and the paned windows we looked out of.

While the others finished up their meal, I decided to climb up to the top of the aqueduct before the bus arrived.

The view down to the restaurant from the top of the stairs.

The aqueduct up close. It was fun to think how this was here first, and everything else was built up around it much later.

Love those tile rooftops!

The view of the square above. It used to be that cars and buses would drive right under the arches of the aqueduct, but then a few years back, someone decided that that wasn't such a good idea, worried that the vibrations might damage the aqueduct, so they made a turn around there instead and the aqueduct is pedestrian only now.