Tuesday, July 20, 2010

2010 Spain Day 7 - To Segovia

Overall, this has been my favorite day of the trip so far. We got up and had breakfast on the street near the hotel. My tip for the day is don't order the Spanish omelette.

We packed and caught a taxi to a Hertz rental car location. Using the Garmin GPS that we rented with the car, we were able to get out of the city and headed to Segovia. We had one minor incident. Reading one of the guidebooks, Sharon wanted to get off the freeway and take a winding mountain road. When we got off the freeway, Sharon did not think we were going the right way; there were no signs for Segovia. We ended up driving back in a circle for about 25 minutes before getting pointed in the right direction.

We are staying at the Hotel Infanta Isabel in Segovia tonight. This hotel is right on the Plaza Major of the town. Driving into the town though the narrow streets was an experience. Luckily, they actually had valet parking at the hotel!

After getting settled in the room, we had a bit to eat on the plaza right in front of the hotel.

Afterwards, we toured the Cathedral de Segovia. This church is very impressive on the outside, but less so on the inside. It does contain a number of very impressive chapels ringing the inside of the church.

Next we went to the Alcazar of Segovia. This fortified palace was a key fortess for controlling the region. We toured the 11 rooms. To Jack's disappointment the tower was closed.

We bar hopped back through the town and finally found a nice place to watch the end of Stage 16 of the Tour de France. In the breakaway group, Lance Armstrong was unable to win the sprint finish.

Looking for a museum, we ended wandering all the way to the other end of town to the Roman aqueduct. More on that later... We finally found and toured Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Esteban Vicente.

We headed back to the room and got cleaned up for dinner. On the way to dinner, we stopped and had a snack at a restaurant with a nice view.

From there, we toured the aqueduct. The aqueduct is amazing. Built 2,000 years ago to supply water to the Roman military base, it has to be seen to be believed. Over nine miles long, the famous section in town is 2,500 feet long and 100 feet high with 118 arches and 20,000 granite blocks. There are some great views of the aqueduct from the point where it enters the walls of the city.

We ended the evening having dinner at Meson de Candido.  All three of us had suckling pig; it was excellent.  By the time, we got back to our room it was after midnight as usual!

I really enjoyed Segovia!

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