During my time in Madrid I made friends with two Taiwanese girls, Ching and Pei-Yu. On the third day of my visit to Madrid they told me they would be visiting an old city to the north west called Segovia. Having spent the day before with them wandering around Madrid they suggested I tagged along with them, which I was very happy to do. From the central bus station we took the bus, for 10 Euros, in the morning and travelled to Segovia, skirting round Parque Regional Cuenca Alta Manzanares and crossing into Castile and León. An hour and a half from leaving we arrived at Segovia bus station, first impressions of the outskirts made me question why I agreed to come along. The outskirts are rather uninteresting, however I couldn’t have been more wrong!
Walking from the bus station to the centre to find the tourist information and to grab a map you are suddenly confronted with the most amazing and brilliantly maintained Roman aqueduct. Constructed with 2 tiers and a total 167 arches the aqueduct is truly breathtaking. We walked up to a view point to get a better look at it and take photos from different angles. Segovia is a walled city with roughly 2,250m of medieval walls to walk around. I was astounded by the amount of old buildings and churches that still stood in the centre of the city, any one of which would be worth the visit! Realising there was enough in Segovia to entertain for a week we hurried around to take it all in within our 7 hours. Finally leaving the aqueduct we walked up to the Plaza Medina del Campo, which has a great old church to see along with plenty of shops and other buildings.
At this point we realised it was probably a bad idea to skip breakfast and we went off in search of a place to eat. We continued up the hill to the Plaza Mayor and were confronted with Segovia’s magnificent cathedral. Built in the Gothic style, the last in Spain apparently, Segovia cathedral is without doubt my favourite cathedral that I have ever had the pleasure to visit. However, at this point our stomachs continued to cry and we agreed, food then cathedral! I ordered as quickly as possible and intended to eat like a ravenous wolf in order to spend more time in the city. My food arrived and was demolished in minutes, though my companions were slower to order and theirs took much longer. We agreed I should pop out for a wander around whilst they ate and meet back in 30 minutes, only on the promise I did not go to the cathedral without them! I took that time to discover the back roads and encountered so many old buildings and churches that to name them all would be folly.
Back with my friends we went to the cathedral and I could not contain my excitement. 3 Euros to enter I thought was quite reasonable and in hindsight I would have happily paid more to see the inside. Referring to my notes on the day, ‘I can only describe Segovia cathedral as the best example of a Gothic cathedral I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. In fact it is the most amazing building I have ever seen!’ Chapels honouring different saints line every crevice, the Garth leads round to a magnificent chapter house with a gold gilded ceiling and venturing downstairs to the art gallery held there was equally as fascinating. Sadly the organ was being repaired but from what I could see, it too was amazing. There is a tour up the tower that lasts 70 minuets which sadly I had just missed, though probably for the best as time was tight and we still had the castle to visit! Though I should like to return one day just for that experience. My very patient companions decided it was time to drag me out and we headed towards the castle.
Arriving at the castle I was happy to see that on a Tuesday between 2-4pm EU citizens were able to enter for free. It so happened it was a Tuesday at 2:30pm and to this point the UK was still in the EU! Thanks for the delay Boris! The castle itself was rather predictable in terms of what was available to see, though I would note the magnificent ceilings in each of the rooms in all kinds of styles. The castle once housed an artillery unit and the large amount of canons dotted around were testament to that. As we were leaving I thought I might try my luck with my free ticket to access the tower, though sadly it came with an extra charge and my friends, having already paid for entry, were somewhat unwilling and aware of the time! Leaving the castle we walked past another church, Sun Esteban, in the plaza of the same name. Though very nice, it paled in comparison to what we had already seen, placed elsewhere it would no doubt be a big attraction.
It was time to leave, in fact time to run, as our bus was to leave very soon! We proceeded out of the old city a different route passing the Academy of Artillery, which is housed in an old Franciscan convent, sadly time pressures meant we could not stop. A short walk later to the bus stop, where our bus was already waiting, we left my new favourite city behind. I expressed my gratitude to my two friends for inviting me as my trip would most certainly have been lessened without this excursion. They simply replied with thanks for my map reading skills! I cannot encourage any reader of this blog to visit Segovia enough. If you do, remember, a day trip will not suffice. .
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