Tuesday 11th April 2023

Destination Segovia. We heard there was a Roman Aqueduct and boy was there a Roman Aqueduct!! All 160 arches most in the original mortarless granite. It was built around the 1st century AD to chanel water from springs in the mountains 17km away to the city’s fountains, public baths and private houses and was in use till 1973. Segovia does have other things including medieval walls, romanasque churches, a former royal Palace, a gothic cathedral and the castle Alcazar (this inspired the Disney castle).

After coffee sat in the shadow of the Aqueduct we headed for the cathedral.  Just a quick wander round, 2 hours later we had seen the cathedral art gallery, the cloisters,  numerous chapels and climbed 190 steps to the top of the bell tower, oh yes we did😅. The views from the top were amazing,  fortunately the bells did not ring as there are 11 of them. One named after Santa Barbara 🤣.

We had our sandwiches looking at the fairytale castle of Alcazar. A pristine  castle, with a very deep moat, rising out of a rocky crag at the western edge of the town, very imposing.

Walking back to Max we ventured onto the top of the Aqueduct to see the water channel and would you believe that the water was cleaned twice before reaching the town, we saw the cleaning tank. We also saw an old coliseum/bullring although not much was made of this, shame, it is part of history.

Our final visit of the day was to the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, mainly renowned for its extensive gardens in a formal French style with sculptural fountains. The hot weather plus burocracy meant the fountains had no water. Shame again as it would have been magnificent to see them in all their glory.