I hope everyone had a great Monday! Mine was alright, I just strolled around Salamanca, toured the university, and took my first official Spanish siesta, nbd. ;) Well, ok, so today was great, but yesterday was, in a word, breathtaking. We took our first field trip to Segovia, a small-ish city about two hours east of Salamanca and home to three gorgeous cathedrals, the castle that Walt Disney based his magical castle on, and oh yeah, a ROMAN AQUEDUCT. The aqueduct (built sometime between 50 - 150 CE) was built by the Romans to bring water down from the nearby mountains. When we arrived in Segovia, we pulled right up to it! The tourism office is located just past the aqueduct so that is where we began our tour of the city of Segovia.
The aqueduct.
Our tour guide was great, she spoke clearly and relatively slowly so she was easy to understand. She took us through the city and showed us the cathedrals, la Plaza Mayor, the barrios (neighborhoods) of the Jews, Christians, and Arabs, lots of super old buildings, and finally the Alcazar of Segovia (the castle!). It was all incredible, it took a while for me to be able to wrap my head around all of that history, something that we just don't have here in the states (well, we did, but we more or less wiped it out). To think that at one time a family, real people, lived in this fairy tale castle complete with an atrium, plenty of rooms, a chapel, a throne room (!), a MOAT, and even an observatory is definitely the stuff of Disney.
This is one of three cathedrals in Segovia, and believed to be the last one built in this style (Romance if I remember correctly).
A big flock of birds flew up from the cathedral and I thought it looked pretty cool.
Parts of the castle, Alcanzar de Segovia.
This is the moat! It is really far down..
Some authentic medieval suits of armor.
Inside the castle there were several examples of knights in shining armor (well, the knights are gone but the armor was there) and cannons. After we finished our tour of the castle we all had some free time to spend wandering around the city. A group of us stopped and sat at Cafe de Juan Bravo in the plaza and guess what I had? Churros and hot chocolate! It's hard to top a real life medieval castle, but the churros y chocolate were pretty delicious. But the day just kept getting better, after our time in the city we had almuerzo (lunch) at a resort, El Rancho. SO MUCH FOOD. I can't even remember how many courses we had, but the food started with tortilla de patata (a Spanish tortilla made with eggs and potatoes), pimientos rojos asados, croquetas caseras (the house croquetas, they kind of looked like mini corndogs but they were filled with some kind of creamy cheesy deliciousness and ham), and pan tomaca (basically bruschetta). The main course was pollo asado (roasted chicken) and tossed salad; probably some of the best chicken I have ever had in my life. The meal ended on a sweet note with ponche de Segovia, a dessert that tastes something like a combination of tiramisu and creme brulee. There was so much food, but we wanted to try everything so our table adopted a new motto: eat through the pain!
More pictures from inside the castle...
This is the throne room, sorry that it is so blurry, the lighting inside wasn't good for taking pictures!
This painting is inside of the castle and commemorates the coronation of Queen Isabel (La Reina Católica).
I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but the odd thing about the painting is that none of the people have eyes.
A window inside the castle.
:)
Me eating churros y chocolate at cafe Juan Bravo!
Just part of a badly translated menu.
The churros didn't last long...
And speaking of eating, I forgot to add this earlier, when one of my friends here told her host mom she was going on the trip to Segovia her host mom decided to make her a snack...
She told her it was a bocadilla (small sandwich) lol..
Honestly I think I'm still processing much of what we saw yesterday! That's probably why I couldn't speak in either Spanish or English to save my life today haha. Anyway, I will have pictures up of Segovia very soon!
Have a great week everyone, thank you for reading!
I don't know if you've had much of a chance to scout out chocolate y churros in Salamanca yet, but my favorite place was Valor, which is about one street over from la Plaza de Anaya. I miss it so much!
ReplyDelete(Also, I am STILL in awe of that aqueduct!)
Hey Jess! I did have chocolate y churros just this morning! at this cute little place very close to la facultad de filiologia. i think that might actually be Valor, it is very close to la plaza anaya!
ReplyDeleteI loved Segovia! The aqueduct is incredible -- I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped when I saw it. Or maybe I made high-pitched squeeing noises. I also really liked the designs of some of the houses there -- the colors, the intricate plaster-esque designs... there was also the Casa de los Picos, so named because of its diamond-shaped stones, which I thought was cool-looking. There's a former synagogue-turned-church, too, but I'm sure you'll see that in Toledo -- in fact, it looks a LOT like Santa María la Blanca, which I hope you'll get to see.
ReplyDeleteAnd weren't the ceilings in the alcázar just amazing?! They almost make your head hurt looking at them!
YES. to all of that comment haha. Segovia was amazing.. i also loved la Casa de los Picos! i have about a million pictures of it haha. and the synagogue-turned-church, the Corpus Christi!
ReplyDeleteThe ceilings were amazing..it is so much to take in in such a short tour, i feel like i spent most of the tour with my neck craned back trying to process everything up there! so crazy. btw, do you by any chance remember why all of the people in the coronation painting don't have eyes? i know the tour guide told us but i can't remember!
Spaguettis would turn into charcoal... :D
ReplyDeleteReally amazing. The aqueduct looks great considering its age. Awesome photography.
haha i'm glad you liked that nathan :) there were other good ones, like "prawn with raincoats" was one translation of some kind of shrimp dish lol.
ReplyDeletethe aqueduct IS amazing..and very cool, they didn't use any kind of cement at all and it is still standing! so crazy. and thank you :)
hope your semester is off to a good start!
Hi, Katie!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you got to visit Segovia! I've been there twice and was just as impressed both times! I enjoy reading about some of the details I've forgotten.
To answer your question from the last post, my home city was Valencia. I can't wait for you to see Granada and Sevilla. Sevilla is breath-taking. My host mom would always tell me, "Sevilla tiene embrujo."
What was on that bocadillo, btw? I probably would've gained tongs of weight in Spain if not for all the walking!! :)
Senora
Hi Senora Leta!
ReplyDeleteI am so excited to go to Granada and Sevilla! Tomorrow (9/14) however we're heading a little bit north to walk El Camino de Santiago for 5 days!
On the bocadillo was what her host mom called "nutella." It was actually just a solid bar of nestle chocolate! haha.
Healthy sandwich! LOL
ReplyDeleteJealous that you get to walk El Camino! I've never gotten the opportunity but hear it is beautiful!