Segovia

It has been a very long time since my last blog post, and a lot of things have happened! I was sick for a while, and then very busy with work and private lessons, and recently my friend Charlene has been here visiting me from France. I'm going to try and make up for lost time, though, and cover the highlights of what has happened the past few weeks.

Last weekend, Natalie and I went to Segovia, a beautiful, small town not far from Madrid. Although it takes nearly two hours to reach by normal train, it is only twenty minutes away by high-speed train. I had been there last summer, but had a completely different experience visiting in autumn. The skies were darkened all day by ominous gray clouds that spread out over the rolling plains outside the city walls, and you could hear the sound of the wind roaring through the vast, deserted spaces. If anything, it was much more magical and mysterious than it had been in the middle of summer, with the sun blazing down and no shadows to escape its heat.

The main highlights of Segovia are its Roman aqueduct, medieval Cathedral, and castle. Plus, the city itself is the very definition of picturesque. Much of the original fortified town wall still stands, surrounding the historic center, which sits atop a hill that dramatically drops off on two sides into ravines. In the background loom the blue-green slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama. It had been one of my favorite day-trips from Madrid the last time I was here, and it did not fail to enrapture me all over again the second time I visited.