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Published: September 5th 2009
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Buenos Dias,
I woke up early once again and caught the bus to Segovia as it would take less time than the train. As the bus was passing through the Sierra Madre Mountains, I saw the Valle de los Caidos. Franco had it built by slaves to commemorate his fallen soldiers. Shortly after seeing it, I arrived in Segovia.
As I walked into town, I passed several very old churches, so I began to get the feeling of what was in store for me that day. I continued along the street into the city and I arrived at the aqueduct. It is 89 metres high, 894 metres long and was built by the Romans 2000 years earlier without using any mortar. It is still standing without any issues and it a marvel of engineering.
I wandered around it for a while before heading into the old town. I walked along some of the narrow streets, which reminded me a bit of Toledo, before arriving in the square where the market was. I continued along past it and on to the Cathedral, which I would be going into later. The reason I kept going past many of the sites
was because I had been given directions to some good photo spots by the tourist information office and I wanted to get to them before the sun made photos particularly difficult. I reached the end of town and then I hiked down a path through a small forest until I reached the valley bottom. I took a couple of photos of the Alcazar from there before heading past a Templar church and up a long hill to the point where I was told would be a stellar view of the entire city. I turned around to survey the area, and I was disappointed. It was a decent view, but there was a road and power lines in the way and I did not want that in my photo. I proceeded up the hill, and then went off-roading a little. I hiked up to a stone wall, but it was taller than me (I know, can you believe that) but then I got clever. There was also a fence running perpendicular to the wall. I stood on top of two of the fence posts, turned around, and it was then that I received the amazing view of the city that the
tourism office had spoken of. There’s nothing like balancing on two, 5cm wide fence posts while trying to take photos!
After taking some photos, I headed back into the city and climbed back up the hill to the Alcazar. I was not going to go in because I did not have my student card anymore and did not want to pay full price, but I decided that it had been a while since I was last in a castle so I went in. I was glad I did. One enters the castle over a steep drop into a ravine. Inside, there were suits of armour, thrones, Moorish style ceiling and a room full of statues of each ruler of Spain. I saw Los Reyes Catolicos and King Bermuda (who I’m guessing the island was named after).
I continued around the castle for a while more before heading to the Cathedral. From the outside, it resembled the cathedral in Toledo, but on the inside it was far less artistic and ornate and ultimately disappointing.
I left the cathedral and headed back to the bus station so I could catch my bus back to Madrid.
On the whole,
I enjoyed both Toledo and Segovia, but I definitely preferred Segovia over Toledo. It was far less shamelessly touristy than Toledo, and just as beautiful.
Hasta Lluego,
Pedro,
Things I learned in Segovia:
-It is well-worth it to wander off the beaten path
-The Romans knew what they were doing when it came to building things. Why don’t people who build things today know what they’re doing?
-That stuff about the rain in Spain falling mainly on the plain is crap. It doesn’t rain in Spain.
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