Madrid, Segovia, Toledo

The second weekend after I returned to Spain, I had the pleasure of a US guest: the one and only Victoria. Her timing was perfect as I found myself to be missing home after returning to Spain. I met her in Madrid on Friday, January 15th. We met at our hostel after my cab driver reversed down several narrow streets and stopped the meter once because he was lost. And Victoria's plane had been delayed, which I found out the night before. But I didn't know that it was because of the crash landing in the Hudson. She flew US Airways and had boarded the plane and then had to deboard and wait while US Airways retrieved a different plane from the hangar. Apparenlty there was a minor problem with one of the fuel tanks, but US Airways didn't mention the Hudson incident.

So we met on Friday and promptly walked through the Plaza Mayor to a churreria for chocolate and churros. We spent the rest of the evening walking around and doing some lite shopping, and met up with my friend David, who is teaching English in Madrid, for dinner before turning in early.

On Saturday, we took the train to Segovia, which is just 40 or 30 minutes outside of Madrid. It was a beautiful day, and we helped a man from China who is living in Dusseldorf, Germany (also where one of my roommates is from), buy train tickets for him and his friends. He spoke English but not Spanish, and was very nice. Segovia was beautiful. Buses from the train station dropped us off at the entrance to the old part, marked by Roman aqueducts. I asked some American students at the top of the aqueduct to take mine and Victoria's picture, and they immediately started speaking in Spanish to each other as if it weren't really obvious that (1) they were Americans and thus speaking with American accents and (2) everyone in Segovia is a tourist.

first: the aqueduct
second: walking through town

After the aqueduct we walked to the other end of the old part to the Alcazar, a beautiful castle and one of our main reasons for visiting Segovia. We toured the inside before climbing one of the towers and taking pictures from the roof. I've decided that I really do not like spiral staircases. At all. And there was only one for both up and down. We were followed up by another large group of American students. Apparently our trip coincided with every other study-abroader's Madrid orientation and first weekend excursion to Segovia. We saw another group later in the day. Uggs and baseball caps are always a dead giveaway.

the view opposite the castle

the castle and some cars

one of the beautiful ceilings inside of the castle

the view from one of the castle windows

Segovia from the top of the castle

an exterior hallway

a book I wasn't supposed to photograph, but I really liked the calligraphy on the top of the page and no one was around

After the castle, we had a lovely 2 and a half hour lunch of seafood soup and stuffed routisserie chicken. Our waiter was really nice as well. We went into the cathedral after lunch, which was beautiful and gothic and colder than it was outside. And after that we just wandered around and drank coffee and killed time perusing stores. We left Segovia at about 7 or 8 pm.

the Plaza Mayor, I believe

more aqueducts

the cathedral at night

On Sunday, we ventured out of town again, this time to Toledo. I must say that Toledo is a very confusing city, and that everyone seems to prefer it over Segovia, but I'm not sure why. Our morning began with a 1.5 hour search for the tourism office. From the train station, we used an over-simplified map to the old portion of the city and needed another one as Toledo is a maze with hard-to-find street signs. We passed several main attractions along the way, and when we finally found the tourism office, the women inside were so nice and so helpful. Both Victoria and I bought some damasquinado earrings. We didn't partake in the city's other trademark, marzapan, although we did see a castle made from the food by nuns. Victoria successfully found out way to the Church of Santo Tome, where we entered at the beginning of an English tour guide's explanation of El Entierro del Senor de Orgaz by El Greco.

a bridge to the city

Victoria and her beloved castle-like structures

another view of the bridge

After that, I believe we ate a quick lunch and headed to the cathedral, which is Spain's second largest behind Sevilla's. It was absolutely beautiful and giant. Unfortunately, we had only 20 minutes to spend inside as we decided to take an earlier train back to see the Prado in Madrid.

the cathedral

Victoria after successfully finding the street we were looking for


a marzapan castle

We spent about an hour and a half in the Prado, and then I'm not sure what we did for dinner. On Monday, we slept in and ate a large lunch at a restaurant I had wanted to try last time I was in Madrid but the wait was about 2 hours then. After lunch, we met David at the Marc Jacobs store and wandered around the city and got coffee. Victoria and I had pizza for dinner and a glass of wine near our hostel and went to bed early.