Un dia en Segovia

Laura and me in front of the apartment. . . of our dreams. This is actually the castle called El Alcazar in Segovia, which we visited yesterday.

The drive to Segovia was beautiful! There are mountains and grassy plains and little villages and it's just so picturesque. There are ancient stone fortresses and churches on the hilltops and the hillsides are just covered in boulders. I must have taken about 50 pictures just on the bus.

Segovia is an old, old city, and if you ever visit, there are several sites you absolutely have to see. The first one we saw was an old church. I can't remember what it was called, but its name had something to do with the True Cross- I think it used to house a relic of it. It was built around the 12th century, and designed after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, so it's fairly round, with 10 or 12 sides. There's no nave, and no transept. But there was a lot of old art in there, so I was really surprised that they allowed flash photography- I took all my pictures without a flash because I know it can really damage old paintings especially. This is a picture of what I think is a Renaissance altarpiece, although it's not near the altar. I should also mention that this church used to be a meeting place for the Knights Templar or something, but now it belongs to the Knights of Malta, and the Maltese cross is featured on several banners around the church.

Then we got back on our bus and headed up to the actual city. First we saw the aqueducts, which I think were in use up until a few centuries ago.
This is a picture of three of the girls who live in apartment 6C, because Meghann went to hang with her actual family here in Spain for the day. It's not a great picture of Leah, but it was the best one of me.

You might notice a lot of little holes in the stones of the aqueduct- that's because the Romans used to insert marble plates over the stone to make it look nicer.

Then we trekked through the town for like a half hour, maybe more. We passed a lot of interesting stuff though, including a lot of street performers [this guy was standing in front of a house that used to be place where people were beheaded, and he was playing Por Una Cabeza, a tango tune that, if you are like my papi, you will recognize from the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Jamie Lee Curtis 'classic' True Lies. So you can add Por Una Cabeza to the soundtrack.]

We saw a statue of Juan Bravo (is there a cooler name? I don't think so), who I think was the founder of Segovia or something, or maybe just a hero in the war against the Moors, and across the street was his house. Beside him was a statue of a sphinx. I have no idea what she was doing there, but it looked like her face had fallen off.

Then we stopped in the Plaza Mayor, where we saw people getting ready for the first of several weddings we saw yesterday. The focal point of the Plaza Mayor in Segovia is the cathedral. You can tell from its buttresses and Flamboyant towers that it is late/high Gothic, but the dome at the top indicates a Byzantine or Mediterranean influence as well. They call it Spain's last great Gothic cathedral.

Finally we arrived at el Alcazar (there's supposed to be an accent above the second a). It's an ancient castle/fortress which was one of several castles inhabited by Isabel and Ferdinand. It's smaller than you might think, but the collection of religious and royal artwork inside is pretty dazzling. I want to post all my pictures from there but I kind of feel like you might get sick of them.

This first one is the view of the castle from the Church of the True Cross (Veracruz) which I talked about earlier. I looked out those windows and stood out on the terrace of the castle.

This is our would-be roommate, a suit of armor in one of the halls at the castle. I love my new camera and all of its settings, especially the self-portrait setting, which comes in so handy at moments like these. This suit of armor was made for a kid.

[If you're hoping for another track on the European soundtrack that fits this section of the adventure, all I can recommend is chamber music. That seems like it would work.]

There were so many beautiful stained-glass windows in the castle, but I really want to show you two of them. They're so beautifully stylized, and so expressive. The first is a caballero, I guess, located in the throne room.

I think this other one is St. Francis? I'm not sure, but that monk hairstyle is usually a giveaway for him. Anyone know what the thing above his head is? And that window was fifteen or twenty feet off the ground- I'm so glad I got a camera with 5x zoom.

I have so many more great pictures! But I will show you all when I get home.

After that, we walked back through the city (downhill this time, so it was mas facil) and headed off for lunch-dinner (it was three in the afternoon, or 1500) in Torrecaballeros. El Rancho, where we ate, was also hosting a wedding (the third we saw that day).

Our meal was huge! First we were served water and wine with bread (I had an urge to dip the bread in the wine, like Communion), then grilled red peppers (yeah, just the peppers by themselves) then little dry bread slices with tomato paste on top, then tortilla again (the omelettey thing that is so good!), then croquetes (I don't think I spelled that right?) which are fried ham and cheese balls. That was sort like a bunch of appetizers, because then there was mixed salad with tuna and chicken for everyone else, with grilled vegetables for me, and dessert. We were so full by the time we left.

When we got back, our ra still wasn't back! She didn't get back until like 8 or 9- her car had broken down the night before and she'd had to stay over at a friend's house! We'd thought she'd just been out partying all night and all morning (you know what they say: there ain't no party like a Spanish party because a Spanish party don't stop, or something like that). The clubs open at midnight or one, and then they stay open until six or later in the morning.

We thought we might like to go out and try this for ourselves. A few of the other girls had said they were meeting in the Plaza Mayor (of Madrid- not Segovia) at 10:30 (I know, 2230) to go out, so Laura and I took the Metro there.

I would like to take this opportunity to let you all know that I am officially an expert at taking the Metro after like 2 days.

So we were there, and we were waiting, and we couldn't find anyone and no one was answering Laura's texts. We were entertained nonetheless, however, by the guys selling contraband in the Plaza, because every few minutes the police would come through in little cars or on Segways and they would pull the corners of their blankets closed, creating a knapsack with all their illegal goods inside, and run off en masse. We also saw a group of South American Indians playing well-known tunes on little guitars and pan pipes and such. They had amps and everything. They played The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel, so that is now track number 6 on my European soundtrack. I just wish you could hear it the way they played it- it was very soothing. I might go back to the Plaza Mayor tonight to listen to them again.

In the end, our friends never showed up, so we took the subway back at 11:20. When we got back to the piso, Laura checked her facebook and saw that the girls had changed our meeting time to 11:30 at the last minute. We'd just missed them.

Today has been nothing but sleep and computer. We are all so exhausted from our non-stop adventures. Tonight: paseo por el Parque con IES.

Besos,

Liz