This past Friday, the 16th of September, I went on the first of two day trips planned by my study abroad program. We went to Segovia, a small town north of Madrid past the Central Mountain Range. There is a corresponding album of pictures for this trip on my photobucket.
We met in Madrid at 8:45 am, an early start, but we did have an hour-and-a-half long bus ride to get there. We went with two tour guides, Celia and Maria, who both spoke Spanish and English. However, Celia lead a English tour and Maria led a Spanish tour, so that everyone would be able to understand what we were seeing. Our first main stop was El Alcázar de Segovia. It was originally occupied by the Muslims, when they controlled most of Spain. It is a large castle, with old parts built by the Muslims and new parts built by "los reyes católicos" after the reconquest of Spain. Many Spanish royals lived there, including Queen Isabel and King Phillip II. It is thought/known that Walt Disney based his castle off of this one. And it is clear why when you approach the sand colored castle with opalescent blue turrets. It is not shaped like the Disney castle, but the similarities are very apparent. We took a tour of the castle, and climbed El Torre de Juan II, a tall tower with incredible views. It was very cool to see the contrast between the Muslim architecture and the Catholic architecture. My favorite aspect was the ceiling, because every room had a different ceiling and every ceiling was three dimensional and colorful.
The majority of Segovia is surrounding by a large wall built for protection during the reconquest of Spain. Those who could afford to pay taxes lived within the wall, and those who couldn't, didn't. Besides the wall, we also got to see one of the gates used to enter the city, and Plaza Major. Every city and town has a Plaza Mayor, where City Hall is located and important events occur. Many cities do not use them as they used to, but in Segovia the tradition continues. We got some free time before lunch, and got to wander around a bit. Going into the large cathedral cost money, so we took pictures of the outside and looked inside some other, smaller churches. In la Iglesia de San Martín, you could see a stark separation between the older construction and the newer construction, which was very interesting. I really enjoyed the older architecture, and the fact that most of Segovia has been restored or is currently being restored.
For lunch, we had a traditional Segovian dish, cochinilla. In English, this is suckling pig. The most interesting part of the experience was that they brought the first pig out, and a man cut it with the side of a plate. He cut through bone and muscle, dividing the pig into 8 approximately equal pieces. When he was done, he threw the plate on the ground and it smashed. After that, the rest of the pigs were brought out already cut. We also had a plate of cooked vegetables, salad, bread, and a wonderful cake with ice cream for dessert. Lunch in Spain is definitely the best meal of the day, and my favorite.
After lunch we went to see the Roman aqueduct that is still standing and intact. Some of us, many of us actually, had already seen the aqueduct while we were roaming around during free time. We got to hear a bit about its history, and then we piled back on the bus. Next we drove to La Granja de San Ildefonso. It is also known as Palacio Real, because it was used by many Spanish royals as a summer house. We did not tour the inside of the palace, but we got to explore its gardens. They are quite extensive, and very beautiful. There are sculpted gardens, groves of trees, empty fields, and countless fountains. There is even a labyrinth map of hedges, with secret passageways and dead ends. According to our map, there are 26 main fountains. We saw around 6 or 7 in total, and they were all beautiful. Something interesting we noticed is that almost all the statues and fountains were cast in bronze. I enjoyed wandering around looking at all of nature's beauty. Unfortunately, the fountains are only turned on a couple times a year for special occasions, but many of them are still beautiful dry.
I really enjoyed my trip to Segovia. It is a beautiful and quaint European town, with small cobblestone streets and winding roads. I am grateful that USAC decided to take us there for one of our day trips, because it was well worth it.
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