Avila and Segovia

A quick note about yesterday and the protests being held across Spain. The photo below is a screen shot from yesterday about noonish. We had been by that square about 10:30 and the police presence was strong. While we were enjoying the Prado which is very near this photo location the protest was being held and some of these people were the ones streaming towards the metro station we had planned to use when we left the museum.

 Today was a day trip bus trip with 60 of our newest friends.LOL. The first stop an hour and a bit outside of Madrid was Segovia. A UNESCO world heritage site for the city centre portion, it has three main attractions; The Alcazar (fortress/palace), the Roman aqueduct and the cathedral. 

The Alcazar itself has been faithfully rebuilt as it was mostly destroyed in a fire many years ago. It had been “repopulated” with items of similar ages as the original building and I found it quite interesting.

Next up was the cathedral. This is the third biggest in Spain and it was interesting but honestly we have seen so many beautiful cathedrals this one was merely “nice”.

We walked through town and it was EXTREMELY BUSY this weekend as there was a special festival this weekend celebrating 550 years of Isabel the Catholic. 

We walked around a corner in the streets and saw the best part (for me) of the visit

This is the best preserved Roman aqueduct in Spain. It was stunning! It is two thousand years old and was being used until 1973!!! No Mortar or cement was used, just cut rocks placed correctly so as not to fall

After a longish lunch we were back on the bus, this time heading about an hour southwest to a town called Avila. 

Its claim to fame is the best preserved medieval city walls in Europe and honestly I was extremely pleased to see this place.

Stunning! Most places in Europe looked like this 1000 years ago.

This city had virtually no tourists compared to Segovia (which had too many). It is the home of a famous saint (St. Teresa) and we saw her birthplace and where she played as a little girl.

It is also the place where another saint named Saint Vincent was tortured to death in 306 AD by the Romans because he was a devout Christian and refused to change to the multi-god Roman religion.

Last photo of today is Caro in front of one of the gates to the city.

We arrived back in Madrid about 6 ;15 and after being let off the bus we wandered up to the Plaza Mayor and had supper in a different restaurant than before.

The Prado

We ate at the hotel buffet breakfast. At 9 euros each it was a good deal.

Also today is the first day we needed our light jackets since we were dropped off at the airport.

We took the metro to the station closest to El Retiro park which is highlighted on many sources as a “must do”. The park is very large and quite beautiful. There were numerous people running or walking their dogs. Amazingly most of the dogs were off leash. 

We spent a solid hour and a half walking around enjoying the views. 

Our tickets to The Prado museum were for a 12:30 entry however we were able to get in at 11:30.

The museum is FULL of paintings. No photos are allowed inside so I went on line and downloaded the following three. I was also surprised to see so many Diego Velazquez paintings were there ( i like his stuff). I had no idea he was so prolific. Other prolific painters in the museum were Goya and El Greco. I found I really don’t like El Greco so I am happy we didn’t waste time in Toledo at the museum that houses many more of his output. 

Velazquez

Las Meninas

Goya

The Family of Charles 4

Rembrandt

Judith at the banquet of Holfernes

Loved these the best!!!

Just before we left we found a collection of vases and jewelled cups which originated from the grandson of Louis 14th of France. They were gorgeous. 

There have been major demonstrations going on in Spain and one major one was  very near the museum. As we were leaving the museum a couple hours later  to get back to the metro station the stream of people heading down the street (closed off by numerous police vehicles and patrolmen) seemed to heading to the same station.  CHANGE of plans LOL.  We found a tapas bar a couple blocks off the street and had refreshments and super good tapas. Yummy!

After that we decided to just walk back to our hotel ( about a kilometre). 

Our feet are quite sore today so we relaxed in our room for a couple of hours. 

Supper tonight was at the Plaza Mayor again ( same as last night but a different restaurant ). While we were waiting for our food, a beggar came through asking for money. We have been quite surprised at the number of beggars in Spain. I am also surprised that they go through restaurants; open air like tonight and inside restaurants like what happened in Toledo. 

Incidentally the food was great but we over-ordered….again. LOL

Madrid

 We both slept terrible last night with me deciding to respond to an email at 3 AM from ATB regarding the ATM screwups in Morocco. Nothing yet but fingers still tightly crossed I will get money returned to me eventually. 

We did our final walk around the centre of town by the cathedral and major plazas where we picked up some pastries and coffee/hot chocolate for our breakfast. 

Back at the hotel we waited for check out at 11 and then spent time in the courtyard waiting around until time to leave for the train (12:30 PM)

The taxi arrived promptly after the hotel staff called and we arrived at the station in plenty of time. Upon boarding the train, security checked my luggage. Turns out some of the souvenirs Caro has purchased caught the attention of the guy at the machine. 

Toledo railway station. It is beautiful.

Thirty five minutes after leaving Toledo we arrived at Atocha station in Madrid and because I had looked on YouTube for information on obtaining  tickets for the metro everything we smoothly and we arrived at the hotel in only 20 minutes after getting off the train.

With check in completed we started our walk of the historic centre of the city. The Plaza Mayor was just crazy full of people and Plaza Sol was full of tents and people protesting about an 87 year old woman forced out of her lifelong apartment by new owners who raised her rent massively ( big news here in Spain).

Plaza Mayor

Plaza Sol

We stopped at a “must see “ market but it was really packed and just not fun so we carried on. 

Check out the guys in the photo. They are not allowed to sell their products here so they place all their goods on a large sheet and if the police show up they quickly draw up the strings attached, toss the bag over their shoulders, and the items can be easily moved (like the fellow on the left)

While having a break we decided to do a day trip on Sunday to Avila and  Segovia (old towns )

We went to the Royal Palace and confirmed we could buy tickets at the door on Monday

Next on our list, a visit to the cathedral. It is nothing special after seeing all the other fantastic churches on this trip. 

It was starting to get late in the afternoon so we started back towards the hotel. We were making good progress until we came upon a church where a wedding was about to occur.  I had no choice but to stop because Caro “always” has to see the bride. 

With the bride view completed 20 minutes later we decided to go to Plaza Mayor because of the large amount of restaurants. We ate a couple of tapas quickly and rushed back to the hotel as thunderstorms were coming. We made it just in time!

Last day in Toledo

We started off the day getting a light breakfast while we waited for the Monastery of San Juan to open. It is a gorgeous monastery with a beautiful church and lots of history. It was commissioned about 1477 by Isabel La Católica (of Columbus fame). In Spain she was incredibly important for starting MANY of the religious buildings. It is thought that she and her husband King Ferdinand were to be buried here but after the Spanish finally defeated the last of the Muslims in Spain in 1492 they preferred to be buried in Granada. 

Just down the hill from the monastery is the San Martin bridge. Built in the 14th century it has beautiful views of the city. 

Next stop was the Convent de Santo Domingo el Antiguo. Initially I was not impressed ( we have seen “so” many churches) however this place is the burial location of the famous painter El Greco. More importantly for me it had a collection of VERY old letters

From 1309!

From the King in 1254!

Same document in both photos. I just wanted the date to be included (1150 AD)

By now we needed a break (12:30 PM) so our next stop was right in front of our hotel ( the right hand side of the narrow street in previous days photos). It is a now a restored cultural museum that used to be a church /mosque etc. It has lots of things from the Visigoth era ( from about 507 to 711 AD). 

The cross and the coins are from about 620AD

After an hour of relaxing we went to the Church of Jesuits, which by itself is not much to look at after seeing all the tremendous churches here. The difference is that church has stairways up to the tower where you have nice views of the city. 

After a refreshment break we went to an ancient synagogue which later was a church, then a jail, then a couple of other things that I can’t remember. It had some nice ceilings.  

Caro was humming and hawing over some jewelry pieces that she couldn’t decide on. I solved the issue as her birthday is coming up next week!

Supper was really great. We walked about 10 minutes to nearby the first Monastery we went to first today. The dessert was very tasty!

Just before 8 PM we went out to see the lights and the night life, We were surprised to see there weren’t nearly as many people as we thought there would be. In the daytime some of the plazas are full of people so we assume these are day trippers from Madrid. Tonight there were always people around but no action anywhere.