Segovia

For our second day trip from Madrid, Princess and I went to Segovia. This time it took us about an hour and a half by bus, but it was definitely worth it. Like Toledo, Segovia has many sites to see. Soon after we left the bus station, we arrived at the base of an ancient Roman aqueduct. Supposedly it was built sometime in the 1st or 2nd century AD in order to bring water to the town from a nearby river. The Romans built it entirely with stones... as in nothing is holding the stones in place! This huge aqueduct is not only still standing, but it actually still works as well.

Aqueduct (and that's me at the bottom!)

Since we hadn't gotten to Segovia until later on in the day, after seeing the aqueduct we stopped for lunch. We had been told that there were two typically Segovian foods that we had to try, so we did. First we had judiones (some kind of beans in a soup) and then we had conchinillo (suckling pig). For me, the judiones were nothing special, but the conchinillo was delicious... although it was a little strange to be eating pork with a leg and hoof still attached to it. On the bright side, we didn't get the head... that honour went to our neighbours at the table beside us!

After dinner we were slightly rushed for the cathedral and the Alcázar, as it was starting to get cold outside. We managed to make it inside the cathedral before it closed, and it was beautiful inside, with huge gothic ceilings and elaborately decorated chapels.

Cathedral

Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Alcázar, we couldn't go inside. It was amazing even from the outside though. It is said that the design of the Alcázar influenced the design of the castle in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, and I can see why!

Alcázar

The most exciting part of the day was by far what happened later at the bus station though... we were just about at the front of the line to purchase our tickets for the bus home when a Spanish woman at the front of the line started yelling at the man in the ticket booth. Apparently the bus wouldn't be coming after all, so we would all have to wait for the 8 o'clock bus. This made the woman and a few of her friends very upset, and they were all yelling, saying that it was the bus company's "obligation" to get another bus right away! I believe she then proceeded to call the police to explain the situation and demand that they do something as well! Of course, all of this was wasted effort... although it was interesting for me, as I discovered I could understand her fairly well even though she was yelling and quite agitated. Princess and I ended up waiting patiently and taking the 8 o'clock bus back to Madrid.