Salamanca and Segovia

Our final stretch to Madrid begins.

We exited Portugal from Guarda, and arrived in Spain at Salamanca.

First stop Plaza Mayor to the Tourist Information office to pick up maps and ideas for the visit.

Impressive square indeed:

Ruth selected accommodation in an old vineyard outside the city of Salamanca - a beautiful estate called Hacienda Zorita.  Here's the view of vines from our bedroom:

Our bedroom was alongside the vineyard's chapel.

No miracles here however.

Even after attending their wine tasting education.

We learned a whole lot about wine tasting.  The most important thing I learned is that I don't like wines from Salamanca.

I'm sure that wasn't the objective but that was the outcome.

Nice place though:

Onwards and upwards - next stop Avila.

This place boasts a wall.

Not just any wall I suppose - it is a beautifully preserved medieval wall, originally built in the year 1100.

Situated at the top of a hill, the ramparts give a lovely view of the surrounding district as you'd expect.

Inside the city wall is a cathedral - it actually forms part of the wall.

Here's another view of the cathedral, and also gives you a flavour for the accommodation inside the city walls.

And interestingly, outside the wall, right around the city are a number of fortified churches.

Avila changed hands a few times - the Muslims and Christians fought and overpowered each other over a period of some 300 years.

Apparently the idea for these churches was to provide refuge from invaders for the poor souls who couldn't get into the safety of the city walls in time.

Next city was Segovia - we spent a night here to give us an easy drive to Madrid.

Here's the welcoming view of Disneyland Fantasyland Alcazar palace from the roadside.

And another impressive cathedral once inside the city:

And what about the remains of the 15km Roman Aqueduct that was built some 2,000 years ago to bring water to the village from the local Frio River.

Here's a couple of old ducks at the aqueduck!  (This pun works when said aloud rather than written)

I hope all Spaniards are shocked at this photo - the waiter was taking instructions from the pet dog at the city square cafe.

With priorities like these, the human race is doomed!

We toured inside the Segovian palace (Alcazar).

It really does look like a Disneyland palace from the outside.

Inside, lots of interesting artefacts, including armour for soldiers and ceremonial armour for their horses.

The "throne" with coat of arms.

The King's bed.

A room celebrated the Kings of Spain - right around the room was a statue of each King - there must have been about 40 of them - I must look up how many Kings of Spain there have been.

Same room from the diagonally opposite corner:

A crossbow.  The bow is actually made of metal - the user has to crank the handle to fire the arrow because it is too stiff to do it with the normal "Robin Hood" method.

Great views of Spain from the palace tower:

And another view:

And another one again:

I probably should delete one of these views, but I liked them all, and it wouldn't be fair to one photo for deleting it.

Maybe I should check my own priorities.

Here's a big priority for me:

No.  Keeping her out of jail is not the problem - keeping myself out of jail by keeping her happy is!

The above photo was taken from inside the palace tower, and in the distance you can see the cathedral.

Here's a better shot of the view to the cathedral.

These palaces need maintenance... big time.

Here's four workmen  restoring the palace wall.  Some of the brickwork is made of granite - I think that was part of an 18th century restoration, and maybe they are going to remove that and go back to restore it to medieval times.

They seem to be chipping away the sandstone/concrete coating to get to the underlying brickwork.

Not sure about what they're doing - it wasn't part of the audioguide.

Spain had a large Jewish population until 1492 when the catholic monarchs Isabel and Ferdinand expelled them all Muslims and Jews lived happily together here for the 300 years up till then.

Here's a photo inside the "Jewish quarter" of Segovia.

I decided not to bore you with other photos from this area - as can be seen above they aren't all that interesting.  The history is interesting, but the physical remnants are not.

The Jewish quarter is near the cathedral - here are a couple of snaps of the frilly steeples:

A close-up:

Ruth also liked them:

Inside the cathedral is an altar...

and sculptures.

I never knew that a pet pig had a place in religious history.

Here's a close-up of the animal and the angel.

Check out the facial expression of the angel - I don't think he/she is impressed with his role in all this.

And what about this artwork?

There seems to be missing equipment on all the men in this painting.

WARNING;  The next photo is graphic.  Please scroll through quickly if you don't want to see a sculpture of Jesus moments after he was taken down off the cross.

Graphic hey!

More my speed - the use of carpets to make up religious robes.

Huge apologies for offending you - If I haven't, I'll try harder next trip.

Well....  That's it for Segovia - off to Madrid before returning to Melbourne.

Lets hope we don't get caught up in the Catalonian separatist arguments - although it will make for interesting blogging.

Cheers till then,
Julian