Blogs from Segovia, Castile & León, Spain, Europe - page 4

Just a week before, I was in Segoviawith some friends. We made it for late lunch here after a morning spent in Avila. That time, the sun was out and we made it through the day with light jackets. Snow in April? Not this time. By the time we got off the AVE train from Madrid, it was raining and the field across the Segovia-Guiomar Train Station was fully blanketed with snow! Bus #11 was jampacked with train passengers eager to reach the heart of the historic city of Segovia some 7 kilometers away. The bus stopped right before the 2,000 year old Roman aqueduct. We had the good sense to make reservations for late lunch at the Meson de Candido by the Azoguejo, now run by the fourth generation of the same family who made ... read more

To save money, I had booked a return flight from Marrakech to London with a ten-hour stopover in Madrid. Ten hours. I have already seen and done Madrid, so what the hell would I do for those ten hours? About a week before I left for Morocco, I saw some photographs on Facebook that was posted by my old school friend Mel. In the photos was one of the most prettiest towns I had ever seen with a fully-intact kick-ass Roman aqueduct and a supermassive cathedral. The place was called Segovia, in Spain. As I wondered how I had managed to miss this place during my tour of Spain four years ago, I checked out its location on Google Maps, hoping by chance that it was close to Madrid. And what do you know, it was ... read more

All good things must come to an end and so did our visit to Spain. During our final days in Spain we visited the town of Segovia and the metropolis of Madrid. Segovia is an ancient town about 60 miles northwest of Madrid. Our first sight was the aqueduct. It was built by the Romans (who else?) about 0 CE. The highest section in Segovia is 38 meters (114 feet) tall and uses a double-decker arches design. The entire thing was built without mortar. The remaining section is almost a kilometer long and was restored in the 1990’s so looks very nice. At the top of the hill in the center of town was the cathedral and it was as big as Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It is still an official church but it felt more ... read more

Again, it has been quite a while since my last post, but I'll keep writing and sharing as long as things stay interesting (which they almost always are!). Among the things one thinks about in terms of immersing oneself in a particular place, the most obvious thing that comes to mind is of course the language! However, this trip has shown me quite a bit more about Spain culturally than just your typical Spanish idioms. Though, aside from your typical idea of what stereotypical Spain might be, everything else one might encounter is very much...American. Going to any mall/grocery store feels like I have been magically transported back to Texas. The general atmosphere is the same, you have your Fast Food section, your typical preppy, Abercrombie-like stores and the occasional 'we buy gold' sections...The grocery stores ... read more

One of the great things about Syracuse, is that they really help you in terms of getting to know the culture, language, and great places while we are here. One of the ways they do this is by offering a couple different weekend day trips to cities close to Madrid. The first of these was to Segovia. Segovia is an incredibly historic town with a population of about 50,000 and is a dedicated UNESCO site. It was a place of great importance during Roman and medieval times, and still has lots of small Roman streets and alleys that are pedestrian only as well as tons of Romanesque churches. It was a very charming town to visit and we went with a couple professors from the university that were able to share all the history and lead ... read more