I've just seen pretty amazing photos of a Roman aqueduct in Segovia.
I've never been to Spain. Is it worth going to Segovia? What time of year? Besides Madrid, is there anything else nearby? Can anybody get close to the ruins or is only for TV presenters?
Hi Nigel,
We did a day trip to Segovia in September 2009 from Madrid. We took the bus from Madrid. Segovia is a small, charming town. There is a castle that you can tour that was the inspiration for Disney's Cinderella castle. The castle sits on a promontory at the end of town. There is a cathedral in town and also a polygonal 12th century church just outside town that you can easily walk to. There is a street that runs right under the aqueduct so you can get right up close to it. You can also have roast suckling pig at some of the restaurants in town. I hope this helps.
Nigel, we will see it this October. I'll be happy to report back after our visit. I'm really looking forward to Segovia.
Yes, yes, yes! Go to Segovia - the aqueduct, the alcazar, the cathedral, the cochinilla (suckling pig)! Both Avila and Toledo aren't far. What ruins are you talking about? If you mean the aqueduct, it is not a ruin. They say it is actually still able to carry water. It was built 2000 years ago, entirely without any kind of mortar. You can walk underneath it or walk up the stairs to see it closer up toward the top. This is an album of pictures I took there while I was staying outside of town. As you can see, I was there in May. The same week, the following year, they had snow.
Hi Nigel, You can definitely get up close to the aqueduct, in fact, there are stairs that take you up towards the top on one end. My family was in Madrid for the last week of June 2015, and temps were already around 80F, but nowhere we visited was very crowded that week. We did two day trips: one day to Toledo and the second day was split between El Escorial and Segovia. We have friends that live near Madrid who chauffeured us around, and I'm sure it was only due to their local knowledge that we were able to see both El Escorial and part of Segovia in one day. We did not have time to go inside the Alcazar Castle in Segovia, so I can't comment on it except to say it looks impressive from the outside.. I will recommend the food at Meson de Jose Maria - it was excellent - we had the roast suckling pig since there were 8 of us at the table.
If I had been traveling on my own, I would have wanted a separate day just for Segovia and spent the night there. Then I would have combined the Valley of the Fallen Monument - which we also didn't have time for - with El Escorial on the way back to Madrid.
Toledo is definitely worth a whole day, but be advised that it has some hilly streets even after you take the escalators up to the old city (or maybe I just have old knees!). Our friends told us about a State run hotel (Paradores they are called) that is on the hill across the river with a fantastic view of Toledo - I have no idea on the pricing, and only mention it because it sounded like a lovely place to spend the night - just in case you end up planning a stay in Toledo.
Rick has an episode on Toledo/Segovia/Salamanca, and then El Escorial and Valley of the Fallen are covered on his "Majesty of Madrid" episode.
Darn, now I'm wanting a bocadillo de calamares (fried calamari sandwich) from Madrid!
This all sounds pretty good.
Thanks for the link to short bit in his show. The credits say they filmed in July 2004, but I saw a lot of men walking around wearing suit coats, even when they were dancing, and they didn't look hot. I thought Spain was a lot hotter...
That architecture is pretty impressive....
What time of day was the film shot? Segovia isn't at sea level, and it seemed to cool off a bit late in the afternoon. Avila, incidentally, is higher and definitely cooler. Still, one has to be prepared for heat at mid-day.
This my third day in Burgos, and it's been quite cloudy nearly the whole time, with highs probably in the 70s. Northern Spain is not the same as Madrid (and don't get me started on Merida).
