Dear friend, let me tell you… a story about Madrid and something else. The Sequel.

Posted: January 17th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: trips and notes | No Comments »

It is January 2-nd, 2010 and we are marching towards the station, the fast train and Segovia. We boarded the speed train and reached Segovia’s station in 25 minutes. Although it is located some 100 km from Madrid, the weather is superb, there’s sun, we find the blue sky and we are extremely happy.

The train was awesome! Still a full customs checkup is made before you get on ☺. This is also the only scanner where they did not make me take my boots off. Yeeey!!!

This was what was waiting for us outside:

and these nice animals

In this case, the station is quite far from the city, so our options are public transport or a cab. People’s opinions on Segovia are either praise or denial. They keep on comparing Segovia to Toledo but this is not quite right. Segovia is somewhat closer to the modern understanding of a city: wide squares and streets… I think that the primary difference with Toledo was the air. The whole old part of town is in sand-nuances which is right on the money combined with the sun’s rays ;).

And here is the aqueduct which is Segovia’s pride and joy. It used to carry water until recently but, it seems, global warming and air pollution take their toll. It will be renovated.

It is as if someone had brainwashed me but I liked all of it… down to the last sign!

Our random walking around takes us to our first destination: the great catholic cathedral which is considered to be among the last edifices belonging to this architectural style. It is definitely much shinier as it lacks the malformed, surreal reptiles and similar decorations.

We continue towards the castle briskly. What really amazes me about these streets is that they manage to combine the flood of tourists with the relaxation spaces and road traffic effortlessly. Peace!

Each city has its castle, sort to say, which was almost completely burned down in the 19th century and restored later on. There you go, welcome to Alkazar!

We had a lot of fun with the exhibits and I started worrying there would be sanctions at the exit.

Each journey has a culmination and ours was about to come. We climbed up a staircase to the highest platform of the observation tower. We saw many small rooms along the way and I bet that this is there they held the beautiful Rapunzels as hostages ;).

Dobri, you would have approved of these methods for bringing up young maids 😉

And now the view: it is indescribable… captivating… like an unexpected ride on the wave of happiness…

It is incredible how time flies and you always seem to be lagging behind with at least five minutes. This is why we say a quick goodbye to the dried-up moat and we head back.

Goodbye, wonderful day! ☺☺☺

The next morning looked promising weather-wise, so we decided to look around the parks of Madrid. We immediately headed for Templo Debo: a small temple brought here from Egypt /it was an absolutely legal affair, a gift from the Egyptian government to Spain/

The exhibition part that I appreciated the most was the staircase leading to the second level.

What is great about the parks of Madrid, is that they almost evergreen, the fountains are warbling and the playgrounds are empty – just right for me:

We keep on walking and rain is added to our enthusiasm. As already described, we are not made of sugar, so it is all right. Let it rain! ☺ We are shining!

The Little Prince’s debut, especially for you!

Our next stop is Spain Square (Plaza de España) which turned out to be occupied by pavilions for all kinds of trinkets?! You need to elbow your way through a side entrance, jump over a crowd of Japanese people and reach the monument of Cervantes /I thought it was outrageous but the bazaar was filled with people/.

The combination of a transparent roof and the rain resulted in this:

The day is dedicated to open spaces, so we keep on walking until the late evening 🙂

The last couple of days in Madrid were spent in non-choreographed walks ;). There are no pictures /due to the abundance of rainfalls/ but our delight is evident. We looked around the largest park – El Retiro – an amazing place where you can find a bunch of relaxing things to do such as rowing, biking, having a coffee and so on. We were also lucky to see a Chinese wedding in front of the Crystal Palace. We swam across Oeste Park as well and decided to come back during the dry season ;).

One of our last attempts before we left was to enter the Royal Palace (absolutely legally, of course) but the royal family was there on that day, so we couldn’t make our visit.