Ávila & Segovia Daytrip

10/22 Today we got an early start, and after our usual donuts at the place next door, we walked about twenty minutes from our hostel to the tour office for Juliá Travel. We had booked our daytrip tickets in advance through the website Viator, and everything went smoothly. We got on the big shuttle bus, and started our drive from Madrid to the small central Spanish city of Ávila. Growing up Catholic, I immediately identified the city name with St. Teresa of Ávila, and that was all I knew about it. Our tour guide, Nuria, gave us a lot more information though. The three of us were nodding off to sleep periodically during the drive, but once we arrived to the medieval hilltop city surrounded by a stone wall, we woke up! It was a bit chilly, and the first thing we did was begin our walking tour. We stopped by the Cathedral of Ávila, and headed in. Inside the church there was a decorative tomb for three Spanish children who were crucified by the Romans in the 12th century, and for whom the church is named after. That's
probably the main thing I remember- pretty gruesome story! We also got to see a statue of the famous saint, and then visited the quaint and small “Plaza Mayor” of the city. The highlight of the city was seeing the childhood home of Santa Teresa, which has since been built over and is now (of course) a church. My Mom is a big fan of the lives of Catholic saints so I made sure to take plenty of photos to appease her! The museum in the church had some of her bones there, and there was a crazy huge mob of people around them.

The Cathedral of Ávila

The birthplace of Saint Teresa

After our morning tour of Ávila, we headed back to the bus and onward to our next destination! About 1.5 hours later, we arrived in the beautiful Segovia!Iconic for its Roman aqueducts, I instantly loved it. It's so classic and beautiful- I definitely want to go back again. When our group was first dropped off we were given 1.5 hours of free time. Liz, Julia and I got a quick lunch at Burger King (don’t judge us, it was the cheapest and quickest thing available), and then spent time exploring the tiny city on our own, taking plenty of photos with the famous aqueducts. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve always viewed the towering structures as symbols of Spain, but seeing it in real life was so cool for me!

The real Cinderella's Castle

Once we had our fill of photos, we met up with Nuria and our group again and headed over to the fairytale stone castle settled on the hilltop, the Alcázar of Segovia. Rising out on a rocky crag near the Guadarrama mountains, it is one of the most distinctive castle-palaces in Spain, and is the one that Disney's Cinderella castle is modeled after! We first went into the palace's cathedral, and saw the gorgeous stained glass. I was embarrassed because members in our group were being really loud, and locals were actually there trying to pray. Luckily we left, and then we got to see the inner courtyards of the castle. We saw the throne-rooms for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, and we also got to see some legitimate knights in shining armor in the Armory! We explored the gardens and a few more fancy, ornate, medieval-style rooms, and then sadly it was time to go. We had a nice long drive back to Madrid, during which I listened to all the Spanish songs on my iPod with Julia. We freshened up in our hostel, and then we walked around the Plaza de España. We got some delicious tapas for dinner afterwards in the artsy La Latina District of Madrid. I will never get tired of eating bravas.

The Alcazar de Segovia

The Armory inside the Castle

Later that night, back at the hostel, we suffered a terrible travel mishap! In hindsight, it was hilarious, but at the time it was crazy. Somehow, one of hair straighteners blew a fuse for the entire floor of the hostel. Before we knew it, there was smoke, burning plastic, and a blown converter. I later tried my converter in the same plug for some stupid reason, and it was promptly destroyed. All the power on the floor went out, but no workers were there to help. Finally someone showed up and turned on the lights, but unsure of what to do with the melting plugs and burning plastic, we threw it out the window into some courtyard, and then opened every window in the hallway. No idea how or why this happened, all I can guess is that it was a problem with the different voltages. I wish we had a video of this whole ordeal, it was definitely pretty hysterical, and we went to bed that night to the aroma of melted plastic.

Julia and Liz love Madrid!