Salamanca, Segovia, and Madrid

 

Salamanca

Last weekend Billie and I met up in the bus station of Spain's capital, Madrid, to begin a weekend seeing two of the oldest cities in Spain, Salamanca and Segovia. Because of our primo placements -- me in Castellon and her in Mallorca -- we haven't done much traveling within Spain this year, instead making use of the more local attractions of big cities (Valencia is about an hour away from me) and beautiful beaches (Mallorca is chock full of them.) We decided to remedy that, and after a few hours on a bus, we arrived in Salamanca. We checked into our hotel, and quickly got set up so we could get to exploring with the limited time that we had.
Salamanca's most famous site is its Plaza Mayor. Every city, town, community, outpost, garrison, and unincorporated municipality has their own Plaza Mayor (main town square) but Salamanca's is considered to be the prettiest. I can't disagree -- it doesn't win by much, but it was definitely an incredible site. It was always full of people and things were always happening.

We spent the next 24 hours walking around the city, checking out the other old buildings. Salamanca has the oldest university in Spain, and the rest of the town isn't exactly brand new either.
Right across from each other were a building with shells and an old church:

All in all Salamanca was a cool city; I'm glad we visited.

After Salamanca, we headed to Segovia. Segovia is famous for two things: its Alcazar, which is Arabic for fortress or castle, and its ancient Roman acquaduct. We also tried cochinillo, the region's famous roasted suckling pig. It was pretty disgusting. Later I found that everyone considered it famous and important, but nobody really actually enjoys it. Add me to the list.

 the acquaduct

To make a quick escape from the old city...

The castle was indeed pretty impressive. We took a tour of the inside, climbed up the towers and took in the view from on high alongside a group of English students from Hogwarts, and then clambered back down. Billie explored the area further while I walked down a windy forest path that may or may not have been technically closed so that I could get a view of the castle from a bit further away. It was worth the hike.

 for cleaning out the sink or slaying dragons or impressing people at jousts.

Segovia, from atop the castle

Segovia's Alcazar from below. Apparently the castle above was the inspiration for the castle below:

 The train we wanted to take back to Madrid was sold out, but we caught one an hour later. After ruthlessly hunting down Thai food, we hit the hay so that Billie could catch her flight early the next morning. She did so, and I spent the morning hanging out in Madrid and trying to find a branch of my bank -- no luck. So I ate a loaf of bread and walked around.