We flew into Madrid on an overnight flight. We slept as much as we could sitting upright, but we arrived tired. It was 1 pm in Spain, but 2 am to our bodies. The kids are really good travelers, but we knew that this would be hard.
Instead of staying in Madrid while we worked through our jet lag, we took a 35 minute train to the tiny medieval town of Segovia. The train station had cows in front of it.
Our apartment was located right in the middle of everything. There was a really cool old building right in front, and I thought it must be a monument of some kind, but apparently it’s just the church that the town still uses.
Our apartment was cute, and we were glad to decompress. Bill went to a nearby store for food while the kids chilled on the couch and I unpacked.
After a solid night of sleep, we set out to explore the town a bit. It was so small, and we were right in the center, so everything was within a few minutes’ walk. We walked by the Gothic Cathedral, the last one built in Spain. We checked out the “mermaid” statue that looked a lot more like a sphinx.
The narrow streets reminded us of Italy, and we couldn’t imagine driving a car in them, although the locals were zipping around. There were also a lot of motorcycles.
We loved the old doors, the cute street signs, and building that is famously covered in spikes.
We went to the Alcazar, a gorgeous fairytale castle that is purported to be the inspiration for the Disneyland castle. We didn’t go inside, but the grounds were really pretty.
The views from the grounds were stunning. We could see an old monastery in the valley below.
There is a tradition of steelwork in the area, and we checked out some of the local swords.
We found a really pretty park with a fountain on our walk back to our apartment.
We had delicious empanadas for lunch at our apartment, and we tried ponche sevigiano, a local dessert made of sponge cake and custard with a caramelized sugar topping.
After a little siesta, we walked a few minutes to the old Roman aqueduct. It was built in the first century, and was operational until about 100 years ago.
We walked out the Puerta de San Andrés. From the inside it just looked like a tunnel, but from the outside it was very clearly the entrance through the city wall. The medieval wall isn’t used for defense now, but it still stands.
We walked along the outside of the wall to a smaller pedestrian gate. The kids were really excited to see actual pigeon holes in the wall.
We stopped at an outdoor cafe for fantas, which the kids are excited to have as they have no dye here in Europe, and a local specialty called tinto de verano, which is a lemon soda with a splash of wine.
We had a delicious dinner at cafe Pasapán. We played The Mind while waiting for our food, and it was the perfect end to a wonderful day.
