Spain, Day Eighteen

Today, we had another one of our classroom day trips to the cities surrounding Madrid. Our destination today was Segovia! There is so much history and beauty to this city; I don't even know where to begin. We arrived in the city at 10:30 and met up with our guide who was waiting for us beneath the Roman aqueduct that was just beckoning us to come investigate it. If you aren't familiar with what an aqueduct is, it was pretty much the world's first plumbing system, but invented like 1500 years before real plumbing and electricity.

Don't let the picture fool you. These aqueducts are actually freaking huge.

I actually learned a lot about how this aqueduct specifically works. It was supposedly made in 1 AD, although they don't have any official documentation on it. That is just the bestimate (I just made a new word: best + estimate) that the archeologists have made. The aqueduct runs a total of 15 kilometers but only one of these kilometers is actually above ground which is the cool part that you can see in my picture. This one is actually the best preserved of all the Roman aqueducts still in existence. The last time it worked was in 1921, but they think they could get it to work again with a little bit of tweaking. The coolest part about this structure is that there is no cement holding it together whatsoever. The stones were carved and angled just perfectly enough that they fall together and support each other to stay up. On the inside of the aqueduct there are big wooden beams in the part that comes to the ground and then the piping for the water is in the top most part of the aqueduct and stays horizontal the whole time. Pretty neat stuff. Those Romans were smart.

We proceeded throughout the town and saw some pretty neat landmarks along the way, as seen below:

A nice view of the town with the mountains in the background.

The cathedral where Queen Isabella's coronation took place. This is also the last Gothic cathedral to ever be built.

However, our next official stop was at the alcazar. This is our palabra del dia. I have used this term before but I feel the need to explain it now because I actually understand its significance. An alacazar is an actual royal castle where the king and queen resided. Then they just have regular castles, called castillos, where nobility lived but not the royal fam. Good to know. This alcazar has definitely been my favorite out of the ones we have seen so far. It was everything I was expecting from the one we saw in Sevilla, please note the knight armor that is pictured below. Segovia is a true medieval town though, so it didn't disappoint this time. The architecture and decoration in the castle was just amazing and it was settled up against a huge cliff that overlooked the rest of the town. A pretty good location if you ask me. Here are some of my favorite things that I saw on this tour:

The alcazar! It had a real draw bridge and everything! The mote didn't have water though... weird.

See this is what I'm talking about. Real knight and horse suits of armor. This was my kind of castle.

The throne room! Can you hear the Game of Thrones theme song playing in your head like I can?

The view from the back patio of the castle. It's lofted over the cliff so you better hope you don't fall off. That's how one of the princes died...

The King's hunting weapon of choice. Wanted to buy it as a souvenir but they told me no...

By the end of the day, I was completely worn out. I napped for a good two hours when I got home and still went to bed early, which is why this post is coming to you a day late. Segovia was great though. I would love to go back someday in the future and spend a little more time there exploring and hopefully see the aqueduct running if they ever choose to fix it up.