We headed up the road from Toledo to a spot that the concierge told us about, so that we could get some great photos of the whole of the city and then we hit the road for Segovia via Avila. Avila is the highest provincial capital in Spain, set at 1,131m above sea level. The centre of the city is encircled with an extremely well preserved medieval wall (12th century) which is over 2km long. We had lunch looking at the wall, and then hit the road again, this time to Segovia.
We’ve been amazed at how different every town has been. The architecture, the layout, the feel of the town – each place has been completely different and we’re beginning to wonder when we’ll be saying “oh, this is like such and such”. Segovia has been the same. This is a gorgeous little town, very clean, very friendly, and definitely worth seeing. The main attraction is a Roman aqueduct which was built in the late 1st century and was still in use in the 19th. This was truly awesome! There were two tiers of arches standing 29m (95ft) from the ground, so it was very imposing (and even better at night). There is 728m of the thing, and it takes a big 90 degree turn at one point. It was in excellent condition, and it was amazing to stand there, knowing the history of it.
The two other fabulous monuments in Segovia are the Cathedral and the Alcazar. We didn’t go into either, as the Cathedral looked like all the other Cathedrals did (on the inside) and the Alcazar didn’t have great reviews about the interior. So we decided both of these were things to look at and admire from the outside instead. The Alcazar was directly above the motel we were staying in. It is build on a cliff edge and looks very much like a Walt Disney Castle.
Our motel was just gorgeous – filled with antiques: inlaid tables, tapestry chairs and mother of pearl floor lamps. The atmosphere was very gothic, and really lovely. The only fault with the place was the single pillow! One great big long pillow that was the same width as the bed.
After a little siesta time, we caught a taxi to the aqueduct on the other side of the town and then walked up the hill to the Cathedral and the Plaza Mayor (the main square). The shopping was pretty good and we dropped into a little parfumeria to grab some more soap and toothpaste. Maybe TMI here, but I grabbed some leg wax strips as well and went off looking at other things while Mark went to pay. Next thing, the girls were all giggling and it appeared they were teasing him about the wax strips. We all made a joke of it and Mark played along with them being his, and so next thing we knew, we were being laden down with freebies! The sales girl gave him some aftershave and so Mark is smelling even better than ever today!
After a walk around for an hour or so, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner that was on a little plaza. Their menu had a ‘left hand’ section – which was all about “we’ll give you lots to eat, just trust us as we pick things off the menu for you”. So we decided to trust them as we are still doing pretty badly with translating menus, and at €30.00 each which included a bottle of wine,we thought it was more than reasonable for a restaurant meal. (The ‘right hand’ section had a set menu which looked really yummy too). We ended up with so much food, much of it that we weren’t sure what it was! There was enough for at least two meals really. First up was gazpacho, followed by white asparagus covered in some sort of mayonnaise that had chopped jamon in it. Then a selection of cured meats, and then some salad thing – I couldn’t work out what was in it, but there were lettuces on the bottom, tuna and mixed seafood in the middle, and then some type of stew with carrots and onion in a tomato base on the top – it was very yummy indeed. Then a big piece of fish, very delicate in a mild broth with some sort of sweet jelly on the side. Next came the meats – one was a lamb chop, the other we think was ox in a pepper sauce. I didn’t like the sauce, but the meat was lovely, very tender. Then dessert (yes, the food just kept coming!) which was layers of puff pastry, cream in the centre, and then caramel something or other all over it. Then coffee. We rolled back to the motel, after taking one more quick look at the aqueduct (which was even more impressive at night)!
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