Segovia

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Segovia is different!  Apart from being a UNESCO heritage site, it manages to be so understated that you wonder why nobody else seems to have discovered it.  So easily accessible, good hotels, restaurants and every other facility and still with cute old fashioned proper shops on the pedestrianised Calle Real.

If you are really into architecture, there is a perfectly preserved Roman aqueduct, towering over the lower town (and one of the best restaurants).  The castle looks like something out of Disneyland, which is not entirely surprising considering Disney nicked the design from Segovia!  And for serious architecture aficionados, in addition to the cathedral, there are enough Romanesque churches to write a PhD on.

For decades since I first visited in the 1970's, Segovia seemed to be the city that time forgot, but all that has sadly changed in the last few years.  The Plaza Mayor is now more or less pedestrianised, so no tourist buses, but the recent completion of the motorway from Madrid and the high speed AVE railway, have brought the city into easy reach of day trippers from the capital.  The tourists get dumped by the aqueduct and make their way up the Calle Real to the Plaza Mayor and thence to the castle, but if you wander just a couple of streets away, you will still find peace and quiet.
Alcazar Old Town Cathedral Aqueduct
San Lorenzo El Parral Plaza Mayor Vera Cruz
San Martin San Millan San Juan San Esteban

 

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© Jeremy Harrison 2005-2020