A weekend day trip to Segovia

This past Saturday, we decided we needed to get out of town.  I think, more specifically, I (kate) needed to get out of the concrete and into something a little more rural for a change of pace.  We started the day in Segovia, a historic city about an hour north of the city.  We toured around there for most of the day.

When we arrived, our first stop was breakfast.  Coffee, quiche, and chocolate croissants are the perfect way to start a day, in my opinion.  From there, we headed over to the Roman Aqueduct, the piece of history the town is most famous for.

The entire structure is built with granite stones, and no mortar.  I think I read that it weighs something like 18,000 tons?  It was built in the first century by the Romans, and is the most important remaining landmark of their occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.

What is that flying in this picture??

The size and grandeur of the aqueduct is stunning, and it's incredible to think that this was built almost 2,000 years ago.  It is no longer in use, but was until the end of the 19th century, which is also amazing!

  

 From the Aqueduct, we went on to see the Cathedral, a romanesque hunk of a building.

Inside, my favorite part was the cloisters - with a little garden in the middle, this was the most light-filled and airy part of the building.

After we left the cathedral we headed to one of the towns many famous restaurants for lunch.  We started with a typical soup from the region - yes, those are gigantic beans!  The soup was simple and delicious, with chorizo and a flavorful broth.  You'd think on a hot summer day we wouldn't want something like this, but it was still amazing!

For the second course, we had to order the town specialty - Cocinillo!  Which is, for you carnivores, baby roasted pig.  It is absolutely delicious, you just can't think about that you're eating poor Wilbur.  Do you see the curly tail?

We finished up with an amazing local dessert, which I don't remember the name of... with some ice cream and a pretty custard.  We also easily polished off a bottle of wine!

After a very long lunch (we tried to avoid some of the heat of the day), we headed to the town's other most famous site, the Alcazar.  It is an old palace/jail/armory that burned and was reconstructed in the early 20th century.  

They say that Disneyland in California was based partially on this building... but I have my doubts.

Inside, there is a lot of Moorish (muslim) influence in the design of the rooms.  Check out that ceiling!  All the patterns, including the doors and doorways are stunning, and are influenced by the moors.

Can you see all of the Monarchs around the ceiling?  I bet there were at least 80 of these friezes around the room, showing each of the rulers of ....  Spain maybe?  I didn't read the information too well... and I don't remember :)

After Segovia, we drove to a nearby French-inspired castle, and walked around it a bit.  We plan to go back and tour the full thing sometime soon.  There was a small lake nearby, so we walked around that a bit, and spent a lot of time sitting on a rock, just talking about things and life here.

Brian had looked into outdoor movies, so we made sure to get back to town to watch Avatar in Spanish.  I'm glad that we saw it twice in the states before we left, or I would have been really lost!  It was nice to go to an outdoor movie - it was almost as nice as heading to the Newton Drive-In back home.  We miss that place.  Who thought we'd miss a drive-in in small town Iowa when we have castles surrounding us?

But, all in all, it was a great day to get away and rejuvenate a bit from life in the city!