Segovia: Snow and Meat in Old Castile

After a week in Madrid we hopped on the high speed train for the half hour trip up to Segovia. Rather than do a quick day trip and back to Madrid, as most do, we decided to book 2 nights there, to do our site-seeing (and meal-taking) at a more leisurely pace, and get the feel of living behind the old walls of the city for a couple days.  

It was cold when we left Madrid, but we were very surprised to arrive in Segovia and find it snowing! The kids were very excited to see it, and spent lots of time catching snowflakes on their tongue, and even making a snowball. 

The reception at the hotel was the least friendly of our entire trip so far - and that's saying something. (Several places in China come to mind, along with our late arrival at the dump we stayed at in Perth.) I said "Hola" and was given a long look up and down before the nice man condescended to reply with "Hola" and then turn his back on me to continue on with whatever he was doing.  But we did eventually get checked in, and got some small measure of revenge later when he wad forced to come and fix the safe in our room, due to the presence of his manager at the reception desk when I informed him of the problem.

We had a few other incidents like this in Segovia - unfriendly bartenders, etc - though most people were pleasant and/or professional. Maybe they just get burned out on tourists, or maybe the cold weather had everybody down. 

But not us.  We had arrived in time for lunch (at 2pm) and we intended to make the most of it.  A place called Restaurante Jose y Maria had come highly recommended, and we found it just off the Plaza Mayor. The food is Castillian and the specialties are Corderito Asado and Cochinillo Asado, respectively roast baby lamb and roast suckling pig.  But first we were brought a small dish to tide us over - tripa. We did our best with it and even had E and D take a bite, though we didn't exactly tell them what it was. We ordered our standard vino tinto, and they wisely brought us a whole bottle. We also ordered an ensalada verde - we make a point of ordering this with every meal as the Spanish cuisine is otherwise fairly light on vegetables - and a roast vegetable plate, which was delicious. And we opted for the corderito. Most of the other diners opted for the cochinillo, and we got to watch the show. They come out splayed over big clay dishes, hooves splayed, snout high, ears wrinkled and crispy, and a slight smile - it looked as though they were flying, perhaps from this world into the next. The professional waiters then serve it up, using a plate to cut the cochinillo into about 6 servings - cutting it up with a plate demonstrates that it is cooked just right. The corderito had less fanfare, but was unbelievably good - better even than the cochinillo (which we had the next day). The wine was delicious, the corderito exquisite and, not wanting the meal to end, we kept ordering things - dessert, Porto, coffee, until finally there was no choice but to leave, 2+ hours later.

In high spirits we stumbled across the plaza mayor and into the cold, vast, and somber Catedral. It was begun in the early 1500s and is considered the last major gothic cathedral, in all of Europe I think. We saw gruesome relics - bone shards from obscure saints, and countless paintings and alterpieces, some dating back to the 12th century. 

The next day we had our cafe, churros y chocolate, y tortilla espanola, then set out for the roman aqueduct. It spans 9 miles and was still used to bring water to the city up until about 100 yrs ago. At the entrance to the old city it crosses a gorge, and rises to a height of about 100 feet, above a structure of two levels of arches, constructed of giant granite blocks, assembled with no mortar, no cement. It has to be one of the most amazing roman-built structures still in existence in the world, though there is apparently some disagreement about whether it was in fact built in the 1st century AD by the Romans. There are no records in existence of its construction, and some claimed that it was actually built 1000s of years before the Romans, though the best explanation I heard is that it was built by the devil. Apparently there was a woman who toiled every day to carry water the long distance from it's source to her husband. The devil appeared one day during her long journey and asked how he could be of assistance. The woman struck a bargain with him: her soul, but only if he could build her something to transport the water to her front door, and have it done before the call of the first rooster the next morning. The devil and his minions toiled all night, and had but one last stone to place when they heard the first rooster the next morning. The devil left, humiliated, the woman kept her soul, and the town of Segovia gained an aqueduct.

We tried a different restaurant for lunch, and had the cochinillo this time, and the fanfare was even greater as, after delivering a speech and then chopping up the cochinillo with the plate the chef yelled "Buen Provecho!" and raised his arms into the air, letting the plate crash to the floor behind him as he did so.

After lunch we went to the Alcazar, the restored castle/fortress at the edge of the walled city. Like the one in Toledo, it was built on the foundation of an old roman fortress. It's an extremely iconic, Disney-esque castle to behold from the exterior, but much of that is owed to 18th and 19th century restorations and additions. But because of those it was extremely well preserved and really neat to walk around. After having seen the royal palace in Madrid it was really interesting to see how a previous generation of kings would have lived. Big heavy wooden dining table and chairs, and thrones in the throne room. Ornate decorations on the ceilings, and religious paintings everywhere, including one of St James "the moorslayer" with bloody moors' heads rolling around at his horse's feet.

On our way back to our hotel we wandered through the old narrow streets, bundled up in all of our warm clothes and hats and gloves, catching snowflakes on our tongues, and enjoying immensely this corner of old, old Spain. And now we are on another train, speeding south to a warmer, and possibly even older corner of Spain. Next stop: Cordoba.