Segovia

Yesterday, after a tiring week of orienting myself to Madrid, we ventured out of the city for the first time. So far, I’ve embraced the Spanish philosopy of “No pasa nada” as a coping mechanism for all the changes, and it’s worked pretty well. I don’t worry about what I’m going to be doing, I show up when people tell me to show up, and I do whatever they tell me to do. So far, it’s worked pretty well, and Segovia was no exception. I didn’t know anything about Segovia going into the trip, but it was incredible. IES, the program that I’m studying abroad with, organized the trip for all of the IES Madrid students, about 60 of us.

A map of Spain featuring Segovia, northwest of Madrid.

On the bus ride, I got my first glimpse of Spain outside Madrid. It was surprisingly desert like. I’m not sure what I thought the countryside in Spain was supposed to look like, but I didn’t quite picture it like this.

When we first pulled up to Segovia, I was overwhelmed by sight of the huge Roman aquaduct. It is massive and wonderful, truly a feat of engineering. Probably built around 1AD, the structure is made of granite blocks without any mortar. At the aquaduct, we met our tour guide. She was a nice Spanish woman that IES organized to take a smaller group of us around and explain things to. Unfortunately, my Spanish is still pretty bad, so I just did a lot of head nodding and taking pictures.

Me with the Roman aquaduct in Segovia, Spain

Segovia also had a cathedral, which prior to my trip to Segovia my host sister and host mom described as “ugly” and “boring.” They are obviously from Europe and spoiled by lots of fantastic cathedrals because I thought it was marvelous. The last gothic style cathedral built in Spain, it’sarchitecturee is very unique, combining medieval, roman, and gothic elements.

In front of the Catedral de Segovia

I also paid three euro to go inside the cathedral. I’m still a little confused where my host family got “boring” and “ugly” from. It was wonderful. The scale was grand, but not too overwhelming.

One of two massive pipe organs in the Catedral de Segovia

Segovia also has a castle, Alcazar de Segovia. It was one of the inspirations for Walt Disney’s Cinderella’s castle. Situated on the edge of the city and over a river, it is strategically placed for defense. If my Spanish serves me, my guide said it was thought to be built around 1100AD, but exact date was never written down. Since then, it has served as a favorite castle for many Spanish royals throughout the years. Now, people tour it for 3 euro.

My first European castile (in Spanish, castillo), Alcazar de Segovia

The view from the castillo Alcazar

Alcazar had a lot of really cool artwork

Alcazar also had some really weird artwork.

My friend Dani and me in front of the castle

Alcazar de Segovia

Betty, Dani, and me looking at Alcazar from the catedral de Vera Cruz in Segovia

We also toured a smaller, older cathedral, la catedral de Vera Cruz, outside of the walls of Segovia. I’m just happy no one broke their ankle on the stairs inside, as this place had a whole lot less thought go into the engineering that the aquaduct did.

La Catedral de Vera Cruz in Segovia