Segovia Sauntering

Last weekend on Saturday (February 5th), my friend Bethany and I decided to go to Segovia.  Segovia is a town about 1.5 hours north of Madrid with a castle, a cathedral, and an ancient Roman aqueduct.  A round trip bus ticket cost 13euros.  It was a done deal.

I got up early on Saturday and headed to the bus station to meet Bethany.  We jumped on a train, went into Madrid, took the metro and found the bus station to leave from.  It was an easy day of traveling.

I assumed we'd need the full day to do Segovia.  On the map everything looked like it was a fair distance apart including the bus station from the aqueduct.  This is the main thing I have learned about maps in Europe.  THEY LIE.  Everything is SO much closer than depicted on a map!  It is a wonderful thing!

We jumped off the bus, walked about two minutes, rounded a corner and could see the aqueduct looming in the distance.  It was awesome!

You could also see the cathedral in the distance!  The Segovia cathedral was the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain.

 The aqueduct is so tall to deal with the grade of the land in Segovia.  It is a city built partially on the hill.

 We got to walk up to the top of the hill next to the aqueduct so we could see the entirety of it.  It continues as you can see in my picture, and then bends at the end and heads off in another direction.

After the aqueduct we headed over to the cathedral.  It too just slammed you in the face.  You turn the corner and reach La Plaza Mayor and BAM!  Emeril style the cathedral is RIGHT THERE, looming over the plaza.

 It is just a beautiful cathedral and it takes a long time to take it in.  I was outside just staring for a WHILE.

I feel like I spend so much time in cathedrals just staring up.  Just trying to take in the enormity of it.  You know there are times when I I actually appreciate the extravagance of the ancient catholic church.

After the cathedral we headed down to the Alcazar, Segovia's palace.  Alcazar means palace in Spanish.  This palace sits on a cliff and looks over the surrounding country.  The back part of the palace is what Disney based Sleeping Beauty's castle on.  Now I was confused when I first heard this because I thought it was based off of a castle in Germany.  The Germanic castle is Cinderella's castle and is the one on the Disney logo.  The Alcazar of Spain is Sleeping Beauty's castle shown  below.

It is based on the back side of the Alcazar.  I'll post that picture first so you have an easy comparison.

The entrance is around the other side.

The rectangular tower at the front is John's Tower which has 152 steps to reach the top.  Of course, Bethany and I did it.

In order to get to the top we had to climb stairs, but not normal stairs,
 VERY NARROW ACTUAL SPIRAL STAIRCASE MEDIEVAL STAIRS!  People passing us on the stairs got to be a very interesting situation....It was definitely a quad workout though because the steps were all very steep and just continually winding.  It was absolutely worth it though.

Here is the view from the top.  You can see the Cathedral everywhere in the city and it is just beautiful.

To the left is the rest of the castle from the top.

After going up the tower we walked through the entire castle.  They have all the rooms set up with the original decoration and information on what each room is and any history that occurred in the rooms.  It seemed like each Monarch added something or completed a room during their reign so the rooms each have their own unique style.

One of the rooms even had a full out Chapel in it.  The riches that these people lived in just baffles me.  This castle is beautiful and amazing and took YEARS to complete.  I'm glad I chose to go to Segovia.  It was an amazing city to see!!!