We got to Segovia in the quite early afternoon. We set up our tent, had a little swim in the pool and still had enough time for an evening walk in the town.
First things first. A thing you can't possibly miss in Segovia is the Roman aqueduct. It's huge and kind of pretty. You can walk under it, you can climb up the stairs to see it almost fromthe top. You can see it from the distance, you can see it from up close. From the side or directly. Many options to choose from. Whichever you choose, though, just spend a minute capturing its size and beauty. Try to find that beauty if you can't see it at first.
Once you're done, keep walking towards the main town square looking for signs of the undergroung aqueduct. What signs? Where too look for them? Just look under your feet, on the ground, where there are bronze (?) signs with the symbol of aqueduct on them. I can assure you, once you find them, you'll know it.
By the way, why did they have two aqueducts? The one over the ground and the one under it? The answer is simple. As I havealready written, the big aqueduct can be seen from the distance. Easily. If I can see it, you can see it, citizens of the town can see it and their enemies could see it, too. It was relatively easy to poison the water running in the aqueduct in an attempt to poison the citizens of the town. That's why they were actually using the water from the underground aqueduct. It was much safer. At least the nobility was.
Once you got to the main town square, you can't miss the cathedral. If you have a chance, take a glimpse inside. I bet it's pretty. Look at it. Appreciate it. After all, European history is heavily based on Christianity, startin with Catholicism. The vast majority of catholic churches and cathedrals tell the history of the place. And are really pretty (church was rich and had an important role in the society. A powerful role, too).
When we got to the cathedral, it was already closed. So we couldn't get inside. So I can't say for sure that it was magnificent, richly ornamented and worth visiting, but I'm not expecting anything less of it.
There's also one more place in Segovia that's worth visiting, but we didn't get there either. Even to see it from the outside. It's the alcazaba, the fortress. It was already too late, too dark. Next time we'll try to catch up on it.
The next day, we wanted to hit the road and get as close to the border as we could. However, first we wanted to visit one more place.
Castillo de Coca or Caste of Coca is a 15th c. castle on the outskirts of a town called Coca, 45 km north of Segovia. Its a peculiar combination of Moorish design and gothic architecture. You can't get there by chance. You have to want to get there. It wasn't easy to find. It looks impressive, though. Like no other place we could imagine or no other place we've ever seen.
The place, unlike Castillo de Butron, is publicly owned and open for sightseeing. But... Yes, again, there's always a "but" when we're travelling. And there's always at least one place we can't see due to construction works, renovations, or simply some festivities. That happened with Arc de Triomphe in Paris, baptistery in Florence, Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, to name a few. And same was here, in Coca. The castle was closed for sightseeing (we were not the only ones wanting to see it, fyi), cause the previous night there was a huge party just outside of it and they were just starting to clean up the place. There was no passage to the castle.
We got back to the car, got back to the main roads and managed to drive up to Saragossa. We saw nothing there, though. We spent a very lazy afternoon and evening by the pool, sipping drinks and having a lot of fun. Lazy fun. We all needed it. It was our last stop in Spain. It was time to say good bye to delicious Spanish food and drinks and its wonderful sights. The following day we crossed the border. But it wasn't the end of our trip. We still had two places outside of Spain that we wanted to see.
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