Our drive to Madrid was a mad rush, humorous, as we are in Vincent after all, to get to the Real Madrid stadium just in time to purchase tickets for Saturdays game before closing at 7pm. How is this for luck? We arrive in Madrid with only half an hour to spare and not knowing the city at all. Managed to navigate peak hour traffic and find the ticket office door and a parking spot right across the road with five minutes to spare. They still had tickets the Thursday night before the game, a huge relief as we had tried to purchase online days ago without success.
We were jumping for joy as we all held our precious tickets. We then moved out of Madrid to make our way to Segovia, about 70kms away, finding yet another mountain spot where snow was still on the ground in places.
Segovia is yet another ancient town to explore. The major feature, an aqueduct that runs through the old part of town. This structure was built by Romans late first century BC and is one of the oldest things we have seen so far, not forgetting the mummies in London. It is quite amazing to see something so old standing so strong with its 14,965m of huge honed rocks making 166 arches, with not a spot of concrete or mortar to hold it together. A masterpiece of Roman engineering that provided water to Segovia. It is not surprising it is a World Heritage site.
On to the Alcazar that it is said to have inspired Walt Disney. It is a beautiful structure of towers and spires with views of the surrounding countryside and the new Segovia. The palace had lovely ceilings and impressive armor but was a little disappointing overall considering some of the other similar places we’ve seen.
We did however have a funny moment here when walking up the steps of the tower to see the view of the town. About a third of the way up there was a tiled structure that looked like a bed. When Mum saw it she said, “oh look, there’s a bed in case someone has a bother half way up!” Now if anything happens that we don’t like we say, we’re having a bother!
The Cathedral of Segovia provided beautiful painted ceilings and frescos different any others we’ve seen and was well worth the visit. Beautiful cloisters, chapels different enough to keep it interesting but similar enough to tie the church together.
On we go toward our next destination, Avila. We parked to camp on part of the old road, a dead end quite visible from the new autovia. Whilst sitting enjoying our dinner the police came along to check us out. This time as they got close we watched them laugh and smile, wave and turn around without even speaking to us. I guess the moustache tickled their fancy and they realized we were no threat.
Avila was touted as something quite spectacular being the only walled city with a complete wall of approximately 3 kms. We walked around town and the wall but quite honestly we would not put this on the tourist map. Too well restored and new looking!
We moved on toward Madrid and stumbled across a loveliest area and a town called El Escorial. About 40kms from Madrid half way up a small mountain area. It is the perfect destination for natural walks, wild picnic areas, biking hills and the town provides the Monasterio De El Escorial.
This Palace is one of the best we have seen in that it provides something we have yet to see, a view of the Tombs. The tourist guide calls it the “hill of death”. The tomb below the Palace that houses the Kings and some Queens, only those that have mothered a king, is a marble structure that has to be seen to be believed. As you can’t take photos, though none would do it justice, you will just have to go and see it. The lower levels move on to other tomb rooms all carved of marble. El Escorial is an area locals and tourists alike would enjoy all year round, and so close to Madrid.
One more sleep till the big day, our first Real Madrid game at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium!
Photo can be found on our Facebook page in the album SEGOVIA, AVILA AND EL ESCORIAL
Here We Come World 