We had really enjoyed our stay in Burgos, but life in a campervan is meant to be on the move; so we moved. Heading further south down the A1, across the flat plains of Castilla Y Leon, past Lerma and Aranda, we finally turned off the freeway to the pretty little town of Sepulveda. Our legs needing stretching, so we followed a footpath out to the Puerta de la Fuerza for lovely views down the Duratón Gorge and back towards the village.
Back in the village we bought some interesting savoury pastries from a very cheerful baker and then strolled around some of the winding narrow roads before returning to Eileen. A tunnel took us right under the village and on the opposite hill, we pulled in to a lay-by for a picnic with a gorgeous view over Sepulveda.
We pulled up early at Camping El Acueducto on the edge of Segovia and tucked Eileen next to a low wall, not too far and not too close from the bathrooms, then settled into our chairs in the warm sunshine, while enjoying the view across to the snow topped Sierra de Guadarrama.
Sometimes, when we set off in the morning, we initially head in the wrong direction; it happened again leaving Burgos. Well it seems that we can do the same thing on a bus…….. nearly. We found our way out of the campsite and over to a bus stop. Curiously, the one that looked like it should go north to the city didn’t have the bus number that we wanted. Thankfully, a nice man on the other side of the road called over that we needed to be at his bus stop. That didn’t make sense to us, as buses in that direction would go south away from the city. But of course he was correct, as the route is a circular one, so we thanked him and boarded the next no.5 to the centre of Segovia.
We’d done some research and knew that there was an aqueduct in town, but we were blown away by the first sight of it. It was built by the Romans back in the 1C AD, which makes it around two thousand years old and it’s pretty incredible that it’s still standing. Our day was spent wandering all over the city, taking lots of photos of the beautiful buildings. We passed through to the other side of the aqueduct and up through the old city to the enormous cathedral, then on to the western end which stops abruptly with the Alcázar, a rather imposing castle on the far point of the rocky outcrop.
For €15 we ate a three-course fish lunch, including wine and bread, outside a café beside the arches of the aqueduct. We ate well whilst doing a little ‘people watching’, and then tried to burn off the calories by strolling back through the old town to find more tiny alleyways and interesting buildings. Finally, feeling all churched out, we headed for the correct bus stop and enjoyed the ride back to the campsite. The sun had turned our faces a little red, but we sat outside Eileen until the sun dropped behind the trees and a chill set in, then we snuggled down inside and planned our next day in Segovia.
On Saturday it took quite a while for the temperature to rise from 5°C to 18°C, but we were in no hurry, so breakfast waited until after 9 am when the sun was starting to dry our four lines of washing. We had decided to spend the day in the campsite doing washing, catching up with emails and generally relaxing with our books. Around 4pm we decided to head into town and take in the Saturday evening atmosphere. We hopped off the bus at an earlier stop and walked the full length of the aqueduct, then on arrival in the centre we found Segovia still asleep. We had a little panic, but then thankfully after 5pm, everything started to wake up. The shops opened, the cafes started to set out their tables and there were people gradually filling up the squares and footpaths. There was no way that I would last until after 9pm before eating dinner, so we found a table outside a café at the top of the steps in Plaza San Martin. We ordered a couple of drinks and then pointed to the tapas. We had no idea what we ordered, or how much we were supposed to have, but the barmaid half-filled my glass with Bacardi with a topping of coke, and then handed over four plates of tapas; all for only $7 euros! After a second generous drink and two more plates of tapas, I had wobbly legs and a full tummy, so as the sun was dropping below the church roof and a chill was setting in, we decided to meander back to the bus stop and head back to Eileen; just as all the restaurants were starting to fill up.
We packed up Eileen on Sunday morning, headed out of Segovia and followed the road up towards the Sierra de Guadarrama; the snow-capped mountains that we had been looking at for the past three days. The village of La Granja was beautifully laid out, but very sleepy at 10am. We found our way to the Palacio Real de La Granja de San Ildefonso, the name of the palace being almost as long as the palace itself. We paid to go in and had almost every room to ourselves, which was rather nice. But after viewing so many tapestries, Chinese ornaments, wooden tables, gold clocks and old paintings, we felt like we needed a stroll in the gardens. As Rodney remarked, he’s not an expert on tapestries and old paintings and they were all starting to look very alike, but I have to say the beautiful, painted, domed ceilings were stunning to see.
The gardens were geometrically laid out, but were rather wild and unkempt; it was more like a walk in the woods. We checked out The Labyrinth and thankfully found our way out again, then wandered over to the water fountains. Unfortunately they only run them in the summer months and so all the strangely copper-coloured painted statues looked rather incongruous without any water spouting out of them. But it was a lovely stroll, very peaceful and I could see why King Philip V enjoyed the place.
At the high point of the pass over the mountains at Puerto Navacerrada (a ski resort), we stopped for a picnic with views back to Segovia and then as we drove south down the other side towards Madrid, the vegetation changed and the heat started to build. By the time we checked in to camping Arco Iris in Villaviciosa de Odón, it was 27°C. We had found hot weather and so we had a whinge to say it was now too hot, but Rodney was glad to be back in his shorts. Suitably attired, he cooked up the ‘Buey Irlandes Lomo Alto’ that we had bought earlier at a supermarket. This seems to translate as ox Irish back high, but whatever it was, it was very tasty with an improvised Marmite/ ketchup sauce and a glass of red wine.
