Hello everyone!
I just got back from my visit to Segovia, which is an ancient Roman city about an hour and a half north of Madrid. In the picture we're standing in front of the famous Roman aqueduct that brought water to the city over 2000 years ago. (pictured are myself, Ian, and Annie. All SLU visiting students.)
Segovia is really really beautiful and very historical. There are still remnants of the time when the time near the Inquisition when the Muslims and Jews where forced to leave Spain or convert to Catholicism. There are still neighborhoods where the "former" jews lived separate from the "former" muslims and the christian aristocracy. In fact, in the special neighborhood for the christians women deemed too beautiful were not allowed to live within the walls because of causing "temptations"!
The big attractions in Segovia, besides the Roman aqueduct and roman churches, are the Gothic Cathedral, and the palace or Alcazar. It has those small winding streets that are so characteristic of Europe, and is set atop a hill/cliff surrounded by two rivers which used to protect it from attack by other kingdoms before Spain was united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. Even with the unification, people where not all for becoming one nation. A hero from Segovia called Juan el Bravo was the leader of one of these resistance movements and remains famous to this day, even though the revolt was a failure and its leaders where executed.
The Alcazar claims to be Walt Disney's inspiration for the Disney logo, but i have heard this about several palaces, to me it was just really cool to get to go to the top of the tower and see out over all of Segovia.
You can see complete photo album on my Facebook page, but here are a few teaser images:
Segovia from the top of the Alcazar tower
Juan el Bravo, still remembered
Love you guys,
A
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