We were up early as we had one of the longest drives we have ever taken in Europe in front of us. We need to be in Granada by May 12 as Kit and Stephen have a tour of the Alhambra scheduled for May 13. It is nearly 800 kilometers from Lisbon to Granada and we need to cover it in two days. Looking at our options Cordoba was the best mid-point but it was not mid-way but 500 kilometers from Lisbon.
Wild flowers at our first pit stop in Portugal.
If you are going to do a too long drive in Europe the best day is Sunday as the semi’s are more or less banned from driving. This means we are the slowest thing on the road in most cases so you can set the cruise control and settle in the right lane and let the other cars zoom past. The drive took over 6 hours and with the additional hour we gained we didn’t park up at Cordoba until after 4 pm.
Cordoba is having a flower festival and the streets and many of the private courtyards are decorated with flowers.
We settled in quickly as we are in the municipal aire in Cordoba which is a new experience for Kit and Stephen. No power, no water, no toilets, just the facilities you carry in your van. We decided that food was in order so we headed into Cordoba to find some. On Sundays a lot of the bars and cafes that serve informal food close down in the evening. We settled on a pizza place across from the famous Cathedral/Mosque which is why we are here and will visit tomorrow.
The gate to the Roman Bridge in Cordoba.
After we finished our meal we strolled down to the Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir River. It is another impressive piece of engineering though Stephen and I suspect it has been rebuilt a few times since the Romans.
The long Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir River in Cordoba.
After the bridge Stephen and I were feeling the effects of our drive, so we headed back to the aire for a well deserved rest.
We headed over to a different part of Lisbon today to check out an area that Ton was very interested in seeing. Belem is located near the mouth of the Tagus River. It is quite distinct from the old town of Lisbon because of its proximity to the Atlantic.
The ferry terminal in Belem with the 25th of April Bridge in the background as well as the Portuguese version of the Cristo Redentor.
We came here to see the sites but also to visit a famous bakery that has the original and best versions of Natal’s which are Tons favorite deserts. The line to get into the bakery was long but we gained entry quickly. Our order went awry and instead of getting Natal’s we got three chocolate cakes. While I was very happy with this chocolate indulgence Ton was disappointed. Luckily our to go order was 6 still warm Natal’s so Ton was ultimately happy.
Stephen Kit and me trying to figure out what had arrived at our table.
On the way to the bakery we had walked by the Mosteiro dos Geronimo. It is an old Monastery that is very impressively large. We would have required tickets in advance to get in so we had to satisfy ourselves with pictures from the nice gardens surrounding the Monastery.
The Monastery and Church of Geronimo.
While I was overindulging in chocolate cake, Ton discovered that there was supposed to be a small Thai pavilion in the park nearby. So after we ate we set off to find it. It was dedicated in 2012 to commemorate 500 years of Portuguese-Thai relations.
The pretty little Thai pavilion in Belem.
Our next stop in Belem was at the Belem Tower. It is an old fort that was placed to help guard the mouth of the Tagus River. It is an UNESCO world heritage site and is quite pretty.
The Belem tower in the Tagus River.
We next went to a hip area of Belem full of restaurants and cool stores. We explored for a while and found a really interesting bookstore in a space that had previously been a printing plant for a newspaper.
This library in an old printing plant was really cool.
We went up to a rooftop bar and had a beer before heading out for some more exploring in the district. It was full of really nice street art.
Street art in LX factory district.
This area is located directly under the 25th of April bridge and is a good example of a repurposed industrial district. We really enjoyed walking thru and looking at the restaurants and small shops.
A beautiful piece of modern art utilizing the traditional blue tiles of Portugal.
When we finished the district we decided to call the day a bit early and head back to the campground to relax. Ton prepared a delicious meal and I snuck in a short nap. We were both glad we had made it to Lisbon.
We had skipped Lisbon last time we were in Portugal because it got mixed reviews and the logistics for campers was difficult. We had regretted it since, and with Kit and Stephen along we got a chance to rectify that oversight.
This bridge across the Targa River bears a remarkable resemblance to the Golden Gate Bridge. It turns out it was built by the same designer as the Golden Gate Bridge. I lost a bet on which was longer, the Golden Gate is.
I put the Cathedral in for our initial destination and google said it would take over 90 minutes by transit to cover the 15 kilometers. We decided to save time by taking a Bolt ride share to the ferry terminal. We saved time, but would have saved more if I had correctly entered the name of the ferry terminal into the app. When we arrived at a place that clearly was not the ferry terminal and acted confused the Bolt driver looked at what I had put in the app for a destination and saw my mistake. So after a few extra Euros and about 20 extra minutes we arrived at the ferry.
This large square and imposing gate was our entrance to Lisbon.
Our first destination was an Asian Grocery store as Kit really needed fish sauce to keep producing the excellent Thai food we have grown accustomed to eating on this trip. With this mission accomplished we headed up an imposing hill towards the Cathedral and Castle.
While walking to the Asian Market we came across this crazy elevator made of cast iron. It was made by a disciple of Eifel, but we could not figure out the purpose, except for tourism.
It was a beautiful day to visit, the temperatures were perfect and the skies were mostly blue. It was crowded as there were three large cruise ships in town as well as all of the other tourists like us.
This photo was taken from a viewpoint just above the Cathedral. Ton loves street art so this photo of the roofs of Lisbon with some nice street art made her really happy.
Right before we came to the Cathedral there was a nice Church dedicated to one of the patron saints of Lisbon. The interior was very nice, and we went down to the crypts of the church to see the birthplace of Saint Antonio.
A decoration from the Egrejia de San Antonio de Lisbon.
The cathedral was nice, but not as impressive as many of the others we have visited. We continued our climb up the hill with the intent of visiting the castle that dominates the city.
One of the many beautiful and steep streets in Lisbon.
We were about 5 minutes from finishing our quest to reach the castle when a nice restaurant stopped us for the next hour. We had a table on the patio overlooking the street, and we were lucky as there were no smokers on the patio to ruin the experience for us. There was a lot of foot and vehicle traffic on the street including some fairly large busses that barely fit. The drivers really earn their pay.
There were lots of these fake antique cars on the road outside of our restaurant.
Just before we left Stephen informed us we were only 200 meters from the castle, but we would have to climb 200 feet during those 200 meters. It was going to be a good climb.
One of the “hacks” for Lisbon is to buy an all day pass and use Trolley line 28 to go up and down the steep hills around the palace. Unfortunately, this hack is now known by most of the tourists so every time one of the trolleys went by it was absolutely stuffed, and often there were twenty or thirty people waiting at the trolley stops to get on.
We finished the climb after a few minutes and arrived at the gate to the castle/palace. We noticed there was a large crowd milling around the entrance, but few people were entering. There were also security guards checking everyone at the gate. It turns out the ticket office was on strike, so no one could buy tickets. The only ones getting in were the people who had bought tickets on line earlier.
Some of the narrow streets around the castle.
So a little disappointed we poked around the neighborhood for a while, before deciding to make our way back to the ferry. The walk back down the hill was easier on the lungs, but not necessarily on the legs.
There is not as much blue tile art in Lisbon as Porto but it is still prominent.
The ferry was just boarding when we arrived at the terminal. We enjoyed the quick trip across the Targa. The Bolt back to the campground was a lot faster than the misadventure in the morning, though surprisingly not much cheaper. Kit prepared us another nice Thai meal of two of my favorite dishes Dom Yum and Larb. Having climbed a bunch of hills everyone turned in early for the evening.
Today was a long day driving. We moved from Porto to a beach town just south of Lisbon. Lisbon is a difficult place for campers, there are only two campgrounds, one has some of the worst ratings I have seen on Park4night, and the other is located about 20 kilometers from the city. We are at the one far out from the city.
Sunset looking towards Lisbon.
The drive down was about 4 hours on a good Autopista. Before departing Vila Cha we filled up with gas and made a stop at Lidl for groceries. We weren’t on the road until nearly noon, so we arrived at the campground a little late. Our German neighbors came over and gave us a quick briefing on Lisbon and turned over their transit passes that will save us 50 cents when we get to the ferry. We were sitting chatting when the wife came over telling us something in German that had her very excited. I went over and looked at her phone, and learned that the new pope was American. She thought it was funny that we were American in an European campground and the new pope was also American.
Later we walked down to the waterfront which was very interesting. It looks like in the 1990’s someone spent a lot of money trying to develop this area as a beach resort. There were roads to nowhere. Street lights lining the roads to nowhere that have not worked in years, and two large abandoned campgrounds. Someone built a nice boardwalk that is still being used by bicyclists, the boardwalk was lined with buildings intended to be restaurants and tourist shops that are mostly empty, though a couple of restaurants are hanging in. It reminded me of some of the old communist infrastructure we saw in Eastern Europe.
Having taken a day of rest to try to shake a virus that had invaded the team, we were ready to return to Porto for the day. No one was in a great hurry to get going so we spent some time chatting with our Danish neighbors and watching the husband work on the brake on his caravan. After a while with a good sense of humor he told us he was going to charge us a Euro entertainment fee if we kept watching so we decided to head into town.
The Dom Luis I Bridge across the Duoro. The upper deck is for trains and pedestrians. The lower bridge below the arch is for cars and pedestrians. The bridge was built by a disciple of Eiffel.
Today our tour was to the non-Porto side of the river. The south bank of the river is called Gaia and it is most famous as the home of the Port Wine Industry of Portugal.
The view of Porto from across the river in Gaia. Most of the river traffic these days is tourist related, short day cruises, hourly cruises and a few week long river cruises. I don’t think I saw a “working” boat all day.
The water front is lined with Port producers and the old warehouses that store the wine. The Port industry was founded in Porto in the early 1700’s by British investors, and a great number of the famous producers have distinctly British sounding names such as Sandemans, Cockburn’s, and Taylors. The British dominated the industry for decades, but eventually Portuguese families began to get involved also.
The tasting room for Sandeman winery, one of the biggest producers in Portugal.
Initially we just strolled along the river enjoying the views and the shopping. One of the other industries that Portugal is famous for is canned Sardines. The Portuguese take this very seriously and canned Sardines are considered a delicacy. Ton and Kit spent quite a bit of time shopping one of the stores while Stephen and I waited outside.
Portugese canned sardines come in cans that are like pieces of art.
It was a busy day on the Gaia side of the river with lots of tourists about. But we went along with the flow and continued down the waterfront. There is a small Mercado on the river that has now been turned into a food hall. We had our lunch there.
Looking across the river at Porto, Ton was heard to comment “You can’t take a bad picture here.”
Coming out of the food hall we decided to revisit a Port winery we had visited on our last trip. We had really enjoyed the Ramos Pinto winery. The Port is tremendous, and Ton loves the turn of the 20th century advertising that decorates the interior. It would be racy today.
Late 1890’s early 1900 advertisement for Ramos Pinto Port. We both love this art as advertisement movement popularized by Toulouse-Latrec.
We were lucky to have the tasting area almost to ourselves. We received an in-depth presentation of the wine from a nice young lady, and then were welcomed to explore the tasting area. and look at the art.
Enjoying Ramos Pinto Port.
After our tasting we hooked back up with Kit and Stephen and began working our way back to the bridge. By this time a lot of street vendors had set up and Ton and Kit enjoyed window shopping the wares.
Ton disappeared for a while to get a picture of this giant bunny made of recycled materials.
After 3 hours exploring Gaia we crossed the lower deck of the bridge and reentered Porto. The view from the Riverfront in Porto is not as spectacular as from Gaia as the bluffs down to the river in Gaia are not as steep as Porto. That is probably why the Gaia side was the working side of the river and the Porto side was the living side of the river.
I am always amazed how these homes are built into the side of the very steep bluff on the Porto side of the river. These buildings were built without the modern construction crane in the photo.
By the time we had covered the riverfront in Porto we decided it was time to head back to the campground. The last 45 minutes of our walk was all uphill to the metro stop for our ride home. But with frequent stops to look in shop windows we made it easily.
Ton really likes this picture. She thinks it looks more like a painting than a photograph.
We arrived back to the campground just in time for a quick dinner. The days have been really good on this trip, but as soon as the sun drops the temperatures do also. We were having a nice chat when we all realized it was getting quite windy and cold so we turned in for the night.
Today was a day of rest. We did not leave the campground. Everyone used today to recharge their batteries and fight viruses. Sometimes a day of rest is what is needed after a lot of traveling.
This is a greatest hit from the Cathedral in Salamanca. On the same facade that had the astronaut carved was this critter eating ice cream and mooning the town.
I knew it was going to be a good day for exploring when we arrived at Porto, it took us about 30 minutes to cover the first 200 meters. Ton and Kit were taking pictures every few steps while Stephen and I walked along talking.
This was our first sight coming out of the metro station.
Porto is famous for blue tiled buildings and as soon as we left the train station there was a nice church with blue tiled art. Then we walked about 50 meters and there was a street of town homes that were full of interesting facades.
The street of townhomes.
As we walked down the street and Ton and Kit burned thru data taking pictures, we came upon a large food market that drew us in. The market was full of mostly tourists and many were on food tours of Porto. While there were a lot of tourists it was also a functioning market for the residents of the neighborhood. Once again Ton and Kit were in heaven.
Slicing ham, a common site in Spain and here in Porto.
So after about an hour we were heading into the town itself, but we had to make one more detour to visit the cathedral with its views of the river and the town of Gaia on the other side.
Looking across the Duoro River. Many of the buildings in the picture are port wine producers.
We finally arrived at our original destination which was a very beautiful street. We enjoy Porto because the streets are full of interesting architecture. But Porto makes you earn the views. It is built on a steep hill and you are either walking up hill or down hill, there is no flat in Porto.
One of the many beautiful street scenes in Porto.
One of the most beautiful streets is currently under construction as they are adding another line to their metro which will run under the old town. But there was more than enough other unobstructed views to entertain us.
The Church of the Clergy.
It was graduation week for the University of Porto. In Portugal they have a charming tradition that the graduates the week before graduation raise money for the ceremony. They dress in their gowns and go out and put on performances for donations. Some are quite clever. 6 of the students put on a private show for me, the deal they struck was that they would get all of the change in my pocket for the show. I asked them what happens if I have no change, they said I win. They then did a little dance number and song for the €4.50 in change I did have in my pocket.
One of the groups of students doing a dance with canes.
At this point we were hungry so we were watching for a restaurant as we walked. We finally saw a little bistro that was doing booming business. We were lucky to get the last empty seat in the place. I ordered a Francesinha which is a decadent sandwich popular in Porto. It is actually a 20th century creation and is based on the French Croque-Monsieur. I have had both the Croque-Monsieur and the Francesinha and I am on team Portugal.
My Francesinha consisting of bread, ham, pork, cheese, and an egg swimming in a sauce of beer and tomato. It is decadent.
At this point we were all feeling the effects of the climbing and decided to head back to the campground. It took us another 45 minutes to reach the metro station as there were still plenty of photos to take and shops to explore.
Blue tile art from the train station in Porto.
Porto once again did itself proud, the weather was perfect, and while it was crowded with tourists and college students, it still maintained its charm and character. When we returned to the campground we all relaxed in preparation for a return trip tomorrow.
This book store is supposed to have inspired JK Rowlings Hogwarts. It is now the center of the Harry Potter universe and requires a ticket purchased in advance to get in.
We had delayed our long drive to Porto for a day, but today we had to cover almost 400 kilometers. It was raining steadily when we left the campground in Salamanca. In fact it rained for most of the trip today.
Crossing the border into Portugal. With rain on the window.
The roads were very quiet in Spain as the area between Salamanca and the Portuguese border is very rural. Because it was Sunday there were very few semi-trucks on the road as semi’s need special permits to drive on Sunday so there are almost no trucks on the road. This makes it a great day to cover long distances.
Looking down on a village just after crossing into Portugal. There was a lot of Scotch broom in bloom. You can also see the storm clouds in the background.
Once we crossed into Portugal the traffic picked up as eastern Portugal seems to have more population than western Spain. Also eastern Portugal is much more mountainous than I remember from our last trip.
Another mountain village from the toll way in eastern Portugal.
Once we dropped down to the Porto metropolitan area the rain stopped and the sun came out. When we arrived at the campground before they would let us enter we had to confirm we had a reservation. The shoulder season when you don’t have to make reservations is getting narrower and narrower. Fortunately we had made reservations and were allowed to enter.
A piece of art on the boardwalk made completely from discarded plastic found on the beach.
After we settled in we decided to relax by playing a form of rummy. None of us knew how to play four handed rummy, so we made up our own rules and proceeded to play 10 hands. We really enjoyed our brand of rummy and decided to call it Portuguese Rummy.
A tidal pool on the beach at Vila Cha.
We went down to the beach for a quick walk. The sun was still shining and everyone enjoyed exploring the beach and some of the tidal pools in the area.
The Atlantic Ocean, it is quite a contrast from the Mediterranean.
After the beach we went back for a nice dinner that Kit prepared. We didn’t get around to dinner until almost 8pm, someone joked we had finally adjusted to a Spanish meal schedule just in time to leave Spain. While the day mostly consisted of driving, we still had a very enjoyable afternoon.
It has been raining hard on and off for the last couple of days. Over night it rained really hard again and the ground and roads in the campground were muddy. Today we had planned on a long drive to Porto, but in the morning Ton mentioned that her and Kit were hoping to visit Salamanca on the way to Porto. As we told Kit and Stephen before they came out part of the beauty of traveling in RV’s was to have flexibility in your schedule. So instead of a long drive to Porto we had a 90 minute drive to Salamanca. It was a win-win for everyone.
Street art as we entered Salamanca.
We headed into town at 12:45 after finding out there was only one bus per hour because it was a Saturday schedule. We arrived in the center of the city, and headed over to the Plaza Mayor. It was originally built to provide housing and to act as a bull fighting ring on occasion. It is a large square with four major entries on each side of the square. Now it is full of restaurants and cafes and looked like a good place to hang out.
One side of the Plaza Mayor.
Before we got to the Plaza Mayor we had diverted to the market. It is another market built of cast iron from the 1870’s. The windows are stained glass and add a nice touch to the building.
The interior of the market with the stained glass windows.
Ton window shopped, but Kit picked up some cilantro and other vegetables for dinner. Ton has been fascinated by the many types of shrimp available in Spain. Today she was happy to see a shrimp with a very large claw like one we had eaten back in Roses.
Ton was fascinated with these shrimp with a single claw.
Just as we were leaving the Plaza Mayor the wind started to pick up and the rain began. I told Ton that we should find a cafe or bar to pop into until the rain let up. She said that the forecast was rain all afternoon. But we did go into a bar and order a round of beers. Luckily after we were done with our beers the rain had stopped and we had blue skies for the rest of the day.
The conch house at the University of Salamanca.
The University of Salamanca is the third oldest university in continuous operation in the world, and is the preeminent University in the Spanish speaking world. It occupies a large part of the center of Salamanca. Cervantes the writer of Don Quixote was a student here and many quotes from the novel are on the walls of the University.
One of the entrance doors to the old Cathedral.
Salamanca has two cathedrals that are for some reason located next to each other. They are called the old and new cathedral, though they are both quite old. We spent some time near one of the entrances looking at the stone work. Ton called me over and asked me to look at the figures by the door. A couple of them stood out, but the one that looked out of place was an astronaut carved by one of the doors during a recent reconstruction. I guess it shows that these are living buildings.
An astronaut carved in stone near the entrance of the Cathedral.
Salamanca is a joy to visit as everything is very close together. My job is navigator and every time I was given a new point to go to it turned out to be only 4 or 5 minutes walk away from where we were. This would come back to haunt me later in the day.
Part of the interior of the old Cathedral.
Our last stop was the Roman bridge across the Tormes River. The bridge itself is of mixed construction with about 2/3rds of the arches of the bridge of Roman origin and the other 1/3 of medieval origin. The bridge has been rebuilt multiple times in history but is still an impressive site.
Part of the Roman bridge with the old and new Cathedrals in the background.
After we crossed the bridge we decided it was time to head back to the campground. The problem is that for some reason the transit system for Salamanca is not loaded into google maps. In most cases all I do is press where we want to go into the maps and push the transit Icon. I didn’t have that today, so I was not sure where the nearest bus stop was or what time the next bus was coming.
The walkway of the Roman bridge.
I new we were looking for Bus 20, but I didn’t know where the nearest stop for Bus 20 was. I had a hunch and after walking for about 15 minutes we came to a bus stop, but it was not the right one. Some more staring at google maps convinced me that we needed to go to another road about 15 minutes from where we were. So off we went, but this time there was not even a bus stop. We were right by a bridge I knew we had crossed into the old city so I headed across it to a bus stop at the base of the old town. I was sure it was a stop for 20, there were about 15 different bus lines listed as stopping there but none were 20. So now truly flummoxed I told everyone we should find a taxi. So we started down the road, and just as we were about 150 meters from the bus stop we had just investigated here comes bus 20 headed for it. The bus stopped at a red light and Stephen begged him to let us on. I decided to run for the bus stop and see if I could beat him there. I don’t run like I used to and the bus beat me to the stop by quite a bit so I was sure we were going to miss it. Luckily for me a nice lady saw me lumbering towards the stop, and actually put one leg in the door of the bus so the driver could not leave until I arrived. I got on and to by time for the rest of the crew to catch up I gave him a €20 bill so he had to make a lot of change.
The old Cathedral.
I felt bad because we had walked more looking for the bus stop than we had visiting the old town of Salamanca. But everyone else took it with good humor. Just as we got back to the campground the wind picked up again, the temperature dropped by several degrees, and it began raining hard. So our luck held out for the day.
It rained cats and dogs last night with occasional thunder. The finale came at 7am when lightning struck close to the campground. I took that as a sign that an early start was not in the cards and rolled over to sleep in. When Stephen and I got out to check on the state of things Stephen found two rubber mats placed in front of his front tires. The campground was worried about us getting stuck getting out and had placed the mats there to allow us to get traction. We felt bad about driving over the brand new mats and it turned out we probably didn’t need them.
Tordisillas. The bridge was built around 1300 and still carries a major highway including semi-trucks.
Our stop for the day was Tordisillas which was only about 2 hours down the road towards Porto. Ideally we would have found a stopping point a little further down the road but there didn’t seem to be any. I had fond memories of Tordisillas from our very first trip to Spain in 2018 so I was looking forward to an easy day of driving.
The church in Tordisillas.
Before leaving town we had planned to visit a Mercador Grocery nearby to stock up on food. But when we arrived we found the dreaded height barrier over the parking entrance restricting access to vehicles under 2.5 meters. Luckily there was an Aldi up the street without barriers so they got our money instead.
Tordisillas is famous for the story of Joanna the Mad. She was the queen of Castille who was wrongly declared insane and exiled to Tordisillas.
The drive over to Tordisillas was quiet. We were routed on a local road for about half the trip and it was relaxing and much more intimate. While traveling this way is much slower, the reward in seeing sites is much higher.
Our Asada plate for two. A meat lovers dream, and the potatoes were also fantastic.
The other reason I picked Tordisillas was that Ton and I had one of our most memorable meals at the campground here. We would often reminisce about the grilled meats we had at the campground in Tordisillas. We also find that going back to a place that generates fond memories can be a risk as the second try does not live up to the memory. In this case the second try was just as good as the first with the added pleasure of sharing it with friends. After our very hearty lunch we decided a siesta was in order so we were back to the RV’s for a nap. We are starting to adjust to Spanish hours, so about 6:45 we walked into town to join the evening promenade in Tortillas.
Kit had asked us to visit Segovia and we are glad she did. When she asked I didn’t even know where it was located in Spain, but it turns out it is just a little northwest of Madrid. It should have taken less than 2 hours to go from Toledo to Segovia, but we also forgot that today is labor day in Europe. So we ran into very heavy traffic as a large part of the population of Madrid was heading out of town. It was also raining heavily so I was a little worried about how our day would turn out.
It was labor day in Spain, so Segovia was extra full of visitors.
Our taxi dropped us off at the base of one of the main attractions in Segovia the Roman aqueduct. It is an amazing structure. Built around 100 AD it covers 17 kilometers from springs near the mountains to the town. The aqueduct as it passes thru the town has over 168 arches. It is one of the best preserved Roman aqueducts in the world and is a beautiful feat of engineering.
The arches are an incredible feat of engineering and construction.
Stephen and I spent a lot of time looking at the cut of the stones and how the arches were built. The precision of the work is astounding to me given the limits of the tools available then. The Romans were really incredible builders.
The Cathedral near the highest point of Segovia.
We next walked to the 12th century Cathedral near the center of town. I have been pleased to find that there seems to be more variation in the design of Spanish Cathedrals than you find in other parts of Europe. They seem more creative, and designed to fit more into the terrain and cityscape rather than imposing themselves on the land and city.
Spring flowers blooming near the Alcazar. The Alcazar is supposed to be inspiration for the castle at Disney World.
The third major building in Segovia is the Alcazar. The Alcazar was built on a cliff on one end of the town that overlooks the river below the town. There has been a fort on this site since the Romans, but the building that became the Alcazar was started by the Moslem rulers of Segovia in the 900’s.
The entrance to the Alcazar.
When Segovia was reconquered by the Christian kings of Spain it became a fortress and castle for the kings. The royalty of this part of Spain occupied the castle until the late 1700’s.
A painting in the castle depicting Queen Isabella.
The walls and ceiling retain a lot of the geometric patterns that are featured in Islamic art. In some rooms you can see where Christian art has been integrated into the Islamic art.
This room and ceiling is almost all Christian art.
The views from the castle are fantastic. You can see for miles in three directions from the platforms on the castle. You can also see many of the quarry’s that were used to produce all of the stone necessary to build the town and the castle.
The views from the castle are breath taking.
In the late 1700’s the castle was converted into the Spanish army artillery school. The museum includes a lot of artillery pieces from the era of the artillery school and I had a good time looking at them.
Looking back at the town and the city walls from the Alcazar.
Segovia and Toledo while very different from each other are both beautiful cities. Apparently, there is a lot of discussion about which city is the most beautiful. Stephen and I talked about this and we decided that they were both more or less equal, so why worry and just enjoy seeing both.
A rampart over the bluff the castle sits on. I liked the two contrasting style of gardens on either side of the rampart.
The rain had stopped just as we arrived in Segovia, and the afternoon was perfect. We walked back across the town one more time doing a little shopping and looking for a place to eat. Our timing was wrong as we forgot that dinner time in Spain is quite late. The restaurants we wanted to visit were all closed to 7 or 8 pm. We eventually decided to eat at the campground and Kit and Ton cooked up a great meal.
