Segovia- Aqueduct and Castle

I went on a day adventure on Friday to Segovia. It is about 1.5 hours outside of Madrid. The trip began with us going to the train station and finding out that the ticket price had doubled since the night before. So we decicded to take a bus instead which left from the other side of town. We got on the Renfe Cercanias (it is a mix between metro and commuter rail). The line we went on goes in a loop, but we did not know that the direction we were headed was a lot longer than the other direction so we passed through deserted areas that probably were not even in Madrid. So we arrived in Segovia and our first stop was the aqueducts. They were absolutely marvelous. These aqueducts were built by the Romans at the end of the first century and do not have mortar or braces holding them together. They reach up 11o feet off the ground... just amazing. There was a road that used to go through it, but it is closed because the air polution was harming the aqueduct. I think this is one of the oldest thing I have seen.

After we headed to the Cathedral which was built in 1525 and is in gothic style. I was not my favorite. I decided that I would like these types of cathedrals a lot more if they did not have the gates every where. It looks like a prison inside. Other than that it was similar to the one in Toledo.

Next we headed to Alcazar. It was built on a Roman temple and expanded several times. It was later used as prison for 2 centuries and then a royal artillery school, in which there was a fire that gutted the place in 1862. It was immediately reconstructed. The silhouette is believed to have been a
model for the Walt Disney logo. This castle was neat... not too extravegant. There was also a huge museum about the school with all kinds of knights and weapons and stuff. The best part was that we got to climb 159 stairs to the top of the tower. There were so many great views. I would just like to say that Spain is so diverse in its landscape. On one side of the castle there are hills with lots of pine trees and directly on the other side there are cliff and cayons and desert type of vegetation.

Segovia was our best day trip yet.