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A pretty little town
Entry 51 of 89 | show all | print this entry |
June 2 - Segovia
Reminded me of the name of the fictional place in 'The Princess Diaries' but that's GENOVIA. This little town had it all - the cathedral, the fairy tale castle and even the biggest and best preserved Roman aqueduct in the world. It was a 2-hour train ride from Madrid so I had to get up fairly early and get going, because I didn't know what time the trains back would be and I didn't want to get stuck there.
I headed out at about 8.10am and got to the metro station when I realised I had left my Eurail pass back at the hostel... and I definitely needed that. So went back and retrieved it and arrived at the main station at 9am to find the trains to Segovia leave at 8.01am and 10.01am etc (I wouldn't have made the early train anyway) . Good thing I had my sudoku book to keep me occupied.
I freaked out a bit when the trains were coming because I wasn't sure I was in the right section, even though the ticket officer had told me platform 2 and pointed in this direction. It's just they had a list of the trains due for arrival and the Segovia train wasn't on it. It had trains leaving after the time the Segovia train was due on the list but nothing for Segovia. I started praying that it was just late and that it would be the next train. I opened my eyes and the Segovia train pulled in - THANK YOU!
Segovia relies on tourists... and everyone was helpful but I thought I had to ask just too many times for help - they need to have more general directions. Once I got to the station there was no tourist information counter and no directions to one. So I asked the train officer and he said 'city centre, bus 8' and that's all. So I had to find the bus stop first (that wasn't too difficult, I just followed the group of loud Americans in front of me - why oh why are they so loud?) but then on the bus there is no information about what stop is next. I could see the aqueduct right in front of me and a lot of people seemed to be getting off the bus so I asked someone if this was 'centro' she said 'si'. But that still didn't help me find the tourist information centre. I asked another person and she took my hand and dragged me to the other side of the aqueduct - the info centre was on the other side... but I wasn't able to see it from where I had been standing.
Inside I asked the man at the counter if he spoke English and he said 'he tries' and then proceeded to speak perfect English and explain exactly what route I should take to see all the most important things. He was very helpful and he gave me a fantastic map too. Now if only there were a sign at the station in various languages explaining how to get to the information centre, what bus to take and when to get off etc, it would be wonderful.
So after taking buckets of photos of the aqueduct from every different angle (I love digital cameras... ) I headed up the street to the cathedral. Outside the cathedral was a woman selling scarves (those beautiful hand embroided spanish tassly ones) and I kept looking at them. They were E20 and I really wanted one but where would I ever wear something like that... the lady kept lowering her prices and went down to E8 but I didn't cave. I have no room anyway - that's my standard excuse now.
The cathedral was cheap (E2) but you could only take photos outside. It was pretty but not outstanding. Still for that price I don't mind. I had my lunch in the shade outside the cathedral and continued up the cobblestone streets to the castle. According to one of the Segovian websites I had checked out, this castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella caslte. However, I thought a castle in South Germany was his inspiration... that's how wars start you know? Don't mess with the mouse!
The castle was quite small (as far as castles go - and I've seen a few) but we were allowed to take photos (always a plus in my book) and the information we had about the caslte was quite thorough. I spent 1 1/2 hours wandering around and climbed the tower to get a nice view of the town (dominated of course by the cathedral).
I wanted to walk back along the walls, but of course by this time it was 3.30pm and in the middle of their siesta (usually 2-4pm) and the entrance was closed. So I found a coffee shop that was open and killed some time until my bus back to the train station. The trains back are again only every 2 hours so I didn't want to miss it... there wasn't much else to do in Segovia.
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