Holy Toledo! It's cold! Let's Segovia to somewhere warm!


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June 12th 2010
Published: June 15th 2010
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Friday and Saturday were spent taking day trips from Madrid to Segovia and Toledo. These towns are both very close to Madrid. The AVE and Renfe trains made it an easy smooth ride back and forth.

We previously booked train tickets to Segovia, wanting to make a full day out of the trip we booked an early train in and late train out. As you arrive downtown, there is a large aquaduct. We hadn’t expected to see these until we got to Rome. We got to Segovia so early, everything seemed to still be closed. The weather was even worse than the day before, so Gigi ended up buying a pair of skinny pants to put under her dress as well as a scarf from a store that is probably meant for teenage girls. We tried some chocolate and churros at a diner for breakfast-nutritious!

In Segovia we toured the Alcazar (castle) where Ferdinand and Isabella once lived. This castle was supposedly the model for the castle at Disneyland in California. The castle was very beautiful! We climbed the tower for some amazing views- glad we had that healthy breakfast now.
All day, Gigi tried her best to stay warm and not complain about the weather, still, some older Spanish lady did her best to tell me I should not be wearing sandals. How does “Don’t you think I know that?!?” translate in Spanish?

We also toured the Catedral. We then ate tapas and drank some wine for lunch. Everybody seems to drink wine all the time. We spent the rest of the day bumming around the town. We were so exhausted from the day that I think we slept for 12 hours straight went we got home.

On Saturday, we went to Toledo, which is supposed to be one of the best towns to visit in Spain. It is much like Segovia. They are both small towns that have cute cobblestone streets and all of the buildings seem to be from hundreds of years ago. Unfortunately, the two top attractions were closed in this town, the Alcazar and a museum. The cathedral here was amazing and we saw a wedding take place there in one of the chapels while we were touring - almost exactly a year from our wedding! We had some paella and other local specialties for lunch - again with wine.

We went to a bunch of small attractions that seem to each cost about 3 euros to get in, but usually not worth it. The worst money spent during the day was 3 euros each to enter a church - to our surprise, you don’t actually even get to see the church, you just enter the foyer area of the church which holds a painting by El Greco. Yes, we paid 6 euros to see one painting!

Gigi is surprised by the amount of graffiti there is everywhere. It seems as if some Spaniards have no respect for anything including some old historical buildings.

We arrived back in Madrid Saturday evening in time to return to Mercado San Miguel for some tapas, sangria, and sherry. This place is awesome, it is an indoor market with many stands to order as little or much as you want. We also visited the Museo de Jamon (Museum of Ham).
On our way to Seville via Renfe in the morning. Adios Madrid!

Chris and Gigi



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15th June 2010

How fun! Keep drinking that wine to stay warm :)
20th June 2010

Great Blog
Hi Chris: Lots of graffiti in Budapest as well. Noduitgang! Love, Dad

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