Segovia, Spain: Part 1

I’ve been meaning to visit Segovia for the last few weeks. Located about some 80 kilometers north of Madrid, I had heard all these lovely things about it. My Lonely Planet made it sound fascinating. Plus, it was only a short train ride away. It was the perfect locale for a one-day excursion. So my friend Tiffany and I took the high-speed train, the AVE, from Madrid and in 30 short minutes (traveling at 195 km/hour), we were pulling into the train station in Segovia.

It was chillier than Madrid when we stepped onto the platform. And once we excited the station we could see why. There were snow-capped mountains in the distance and it was gorgeous. It was way nicer to look at, landscape-wise, than Toledo (sorry, Toledo). Toledo is situated in an area where it’s very dry and all you can see is basically dirt when you’re riding the train out there. But we saw cows and farms and green fields (as lush as Spain gets, really) on our way to Segovia.

We took a bus to the old part of the city and walked a short distance. We were admiring the pretty churches that popped up here and there and musing about how far it was to walk to the cathedral when we rounded the corner and saw…

Yes, that is an aqueduct. Segovia is home to a Roman aqueduct, which is one of the few free-standing aqueducts still intact. It’s ENORMOUS. And it stretches on for ages and ages (894 meters, apparently), which is stunningly impressive given that there’s no mortar used. My Lonely Planet actually talks about a local legend about the aqueduct, how a girl was willing to sell her soul to the devil if he built a structure that would make carrying water easier. God heard and foiled the devil’s plans, but didn’t have the heart to tear down the aqueduct, so it stayed. It’s an interesting little story, but all in all, the Romans built this in 1 AD, so.

We walked up to the top of the aqueduct, where we got a beautiful view of the city and we could also see the aqueduct just stretching off into the distance.

Honestly, I wasn’t SO EXCITED to see the aqueduct, but it was AWESOME to witness in person. It’s really an incredible work of architecture, and to think about how old it is is amazing. Of course, there’s only so much to see. We took some pictures at the top and then headed towards the Plaza Mayor for the cathedral, which I was really looking forward to. I know, I know. Europe has so many cathedrals blah blah blah. We didn’t bother with Toledo’s because of how expensive the entrance fee was, but Segovia’s is the third largest in Europe, so. I was sold. I’m a big sucker for cathedrals anyway, because I like to think about the acoustics and how a choir would sound in there and how I wish I were singing.

It was pretty massive. Segovia is a small city boasting a lot of large attractions.

I know. You walk into the Plaza Mayor and you’re like, “WHAT. IT’S A GIANT CHURCH WITH GORGEOUS TOWERS.” We also walked in at noon, when all the bells were ringing the hour, and it was magical. And the inside of the cathedral is something worth seeing, considering its 20-some chapels and this beautiful cloister. It was enormous. I am…running out of synonyms for FREAKING HUGE, but you get the idea.

I’m not a big fan of Catholic iconography, particularly the rather violent images of Jesus dying on the cross, so those things I was over. I’m also not super into the let’s-gild-everything sort of thing that Catholic churches love, but it’s interesting to look at the amount of money that went into that. And god bless my parents (haha, no pun intended with the cathedral) for buying me a camera that takes perfect shots in dim lighting. See, Dad? It was worth it.

My favorite part of the cathedral (after taking approximately five thousand pictures) was the cloister. It was really beautiful, even though we weren’t allowed to go into the courtyard. But it was airy and light, and there were some interesting rooms with exhibits (not that we understood them since they were in Spanish) off the corridors.

Eventually we left, feeling like we had gotten our 3€ worth. We still weren’t hungry, so we decided to squeeze in the Alcázar of Segovia before lunch. The word means fortress, and a lot of cities in Spain have a castle like this. Rebecca and I didn’t visit the one in Toledo, but the Segovia one is definitely worth the time. It was apparently Walt Disney’s inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle, so, you know, I was won over. And I hadn’t been inside a castle yet (a travesty, to be sure – two months in Spain and no castles?!). It was little smaller than I had imagined in my mind (not that it was by any means small), but still quite impressive.

It is Segovia’s biggest attraction, so it costs a little more. We wanted to see the castle proper, as well as the fortress tower, so we paid a total of 6.50 to get in. The rooms we toured were very neat, full of suits of armor and the like. We saw the throne room and the royal bedchamber (I could not for the life of me get a focused picture of those rooms, so alas). It was a favorite royal residence of a number of rulers, but eventually it was turned into state prison when the court moved to Madrid. It has also been the Royal Artillery School, and it still holds the General Military Archives. Because of this there was an extensive weaponry exhibit that Tiffany took a cursory walk through. Weapons just weren’t our thing.

After the castle, we headed up to the watchtower since we had heard the view was stunning. We had not accounted for it also being incredibly steep with very tall stairs. I wish at the time I hadn’t been dying so I could have snapped a picture of the very narrow, very awful circular stairway that never seemed to end. And when you’re on them, you can’t stop! There are people behind you! And other people, trying to come down! I had to take a few minutes to recover when we finally got to the top.

The view was pretty great though, as advertised.

And then, at long last, we headed to lunch.