And then to have to wrestle with an underground car parking system where you park your car on a plate and it whisks it away to its bowels. But to awake on a November morning to glorious sunshine and wander from our hotel straight into the main square filled with the buzz of a bank holiday weekend was more than enough to make up for it.
Segovia, just northwest of Madrid, is most famous for its enormous Roman aqueduct. As the town itself is perched on a hill, a high point in the surrounding plains (the meseta), you can quickly see why an aqueduct is needed. However, as you walk through the town to where the hill drops dramatically down and up again, it is difficult to prepare yourself for the enormity of the aqueduct. Its incredible arches seemingly totter on top of each other and are built out of huge perfectly shaped boulders. It spans the space with an immense sense of drama.
Unsurprisingly this is a tourist focal point and the plaza surrounding the aqueduct is filled with people trying to capture the glory of it.
We then followed the side streets back up to the main part of the town and into the Plaza Mayor for lunch. The Plaza is overlooked by Segovia’s cathedral, big enough to make you appreciate that this town has cultural significance. It presides over the square like a highly intricate wedding cake. As it was a bank holiday weekend, the restaurants and cafes were filled with tourists, both foreign and españoles. Everywhere the dish of the day appeared to be beautifully roasted pork shanks - we could hardly miss an opportunity to sample it. It went down well with the sunshine on the terrace and a small glass of something cold.
Next on the hit-list was another monument that Segovia is so famous for – the Alcazar. We had heard that as castles go, this one is straight out of a story book. However, as we walked through the narrow streets and got our first glimpse of its great narrow turrets framed by multi-coloured autumnal trees, we literally could barely believe it was real. It is perched at the very end of the town and sits above a near cliff face overlooking the great meseta beyond, with forests of red, orange, plum, green and yellow trees which give it an even more magical appearance. The castle itself is filled with intricately decorated rooms, whose artistic influences really remind you that this area was once the boundary between the Christians and the Moors.
On Sunday we decided to check out some of the other great castles, something that this region is famed for. Our first stop was in Coca, a short drive further northwest from Segovia. After the Alcazar in Segovia it was pretty hard not to be disappointed with Coca’s effort. Of course, it ticked the boxes in terms of turrets, deep moats and castellation, and certainly provided us with wry amusement at the dramatised video of the life of the Fonseca family who originally owned it. After trotting dutifully around Coca’s castle, it was time to move on to the next one – Castillo de la Mota in Medina del Campo. This time we were moving towards Salamanca and were now in the region of Castilla y Leon. Medina del Campo is a bit more of a substantial town in itself. The castle reflected this – again it had the dramatic castellation seen at Coca, soaring towers, a deep moat and it had the same Moorish influences as found elsewhere. However this one was on a much grander scale. Certainly it was worth the slight detour on our drive to Salamanca, but a couple of hours and possibly lunch was all that the place could sustain. Then it was on to Salamanca, across the vast dry and yellowing meseta.
Unfortunately we seemed to bring the proper autumnal weather with us for as we arrived in Salamanca, I was finally convinced it is November. More of that next time.
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