My eye allergies were returning. They were bad in Colorado, better in England and Italy, and bad again in Spain. What the heck am I allergic to?!
We walked a much faster route to Puerto del Sol and hopped the metro to a different train station on the opposite side of Madrid—Chamartin. Gotta love the fast trains.
The train station in Segovia was quite a distance from the city, not walkable for sure. We took a bus in to the Aqueduct bus stop and from there walked up the hill away from the Aqueduct where all the recently arrived tourists were congregating, toward the Alcazar of Segovia (literally meaning Segovia Fortress) a castle on the far end of town. Our intent was to outsmart the tourists and work our way back to see the Aqueduct later in the day.
We purchased tickets that included an audio tour of the castle. Apparently this castle was used as a model for the Disney Cinderella castle.
The castle was perfectly situated and was completely impenetrable and inescapable, used at one time to house prisoners.
We loved the views of the city front the top of the castle, posting photos to Instagram while we were there.
Since Misha was always the first one awake in the morning to get ready for seminary, we could count on getting a text from her shortly after 1 pm our time. She had a couple of minutes to chat before getting ready for the day.
Can I just say how wonderful my girls were throughout this whole time that Chris and I were away. Amy handled the parenting part like a pro and we felt as though Misha and Kristen were super in taking care of each other and the day to day aspects of school, church, chores, activities, and work. Italy had always been a dream for me and they were helpful in making it happen. Thanks girls.
We stopped for lunch at Trattoria Pizzeria, Chris ordered pizza and I ordered gnocchi a la Bolognese. Even in Europe, I changed my ordered to my liking. Chris liked my lunch more. We had plenty that we could have ordered one meal and been fine.
As the afternoon wore one, the sun sunk in the sky and started to cool off the temperatures. We checked out the Cathedral (which was really dark inside) and other structures close to the main square.
The photo bomber struck again.
We followed winding streets hoping to pop out at the top of the Aqueduct where we then took the stairs down to the base of the Aqueduct.
The Roman Aqueduct of Segovia, probably built c. 50 BC, is remarkably well preserved. This impressive construction, with its two tiers of arches, forms part of the magnificent setting of the historic city of Segovia. It is an enormous construction of masonry, 813 m in length, consisting of four straight segments and two superimposed arcades borne by 128 pillars. At the lowest point of the valley, the Aqueduct stands at a height of 28.5 m above ground. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/311
We found another small cafe that served hot chocolate and enjoyed this tasty treat again.
As I chatted with Amy through the streets of Segovia, not really watching where Chris was guiding me, he said, “I think you are going to like what I found.” I couldn’t imagine what it might even be, until we stopped in front of a plaque that read, “The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints” in Spanish. That was neat. Out of all the cathedrals and churches and crucifixes, this small and simple plaque was pretty cool.
We took a bumpy number 11 bus back to the train station, a train back to Chamartin, and a metro to Puerto del Sol. Chris found this cool restaurant on Yelp called Takos Al Pastor. It was a trendy spot offering tacos for 1€. The queue formed out the door, and we waited for about 30 minutes before ordering something we hoped would be great. It was tasty and messy. Fingers only and a 10 napkin meal for me. If you are ever in Madrid, I highly recommend it.
