Skip to main content

When You Wish Upon a Star

Dear Reader,


One short day in the [Segovia] City! It is a beautiful city, to be sure. As part of our study abroad program in Spain, our group takes various trips to different cities here in Spain to see museums, palaces and history from several different eras of humanity. Today it was a pleasure to travel to Segovia. We had several adventures while we were there.


First off, we stopped off at the Palacio de la Granja (Palace of the Farm). It was an attempt to replicate the Palace of Versailles in France back in the 18th century. We weren't able to enter the palace itself, but we spent about an hour walking around the numerous gardens on the south side of the palace.



The palace gardens awesome. The pictures taken here don't do it justice. The gardens stretched father than you can see and the statues were absolutely beautiful. They were representations of hunting on the grounds with dogs, Greek Gods, and other famous figures from the middle ages. However, despite the beauty of these gardens, they are nothing compared to the other site we visited in the afternoon. 


This, my friends, is the Alcazar de Segovia. It is the most beautiful castle I have ever seen. The views from the top are indescribable.

James didn't realize I was taking a picture
This castle may or may not have been an inspiration for the Castle in Disneyland in California (Several people will argue about that, but you can't deny that they look similar from the front). Regardless of the actual relationship between the two castles, all day I couldn't help but have Disney songs run through my head. My friends on this trip probably were annoyed by how much I was singing, but that is what happens on a daily basis.

This is the moat around the castle, it looked to be about a 100 ft drop. 
 

This is just one view from the castle, from about halfway up. The church you can see near the center is one of the churches Veracruz. They have a piece of wood there that supposedly was part of the cross that Christ hung on when he was crucified. There are several of these churches around the world, most of them are octagonal, which differs from the typical cross-design of most churches. It doesn't show up very well in this picture, but the view is spectacular. Almost as good as the view from the top, which is shown below.

The tower in this picture is Catholic Cathedral of Segovia. Andrea didn't know I was taking a picture either. 


Again, this is not a view from the top, but you can see how beautiful the countryside is. I told my buddies that one day I'm going to come live in Segovia one day. It is going to be a long time, but I will do it. Just to be able to visit this castle would be worth it. You could spend all day on the top level. That is if you don't like heights. If you don't mind being high in the air or climbing a bunch of steps, you can also enjoy views like the one below. 
Does this not look like the castle top in Beauty and the Beast?
It was a great time with our group as we took a look around the castle. 152 steps up the tower is where all got see these breath-taking landscapes. We had a couple of scares on this trip to Segovia. We thought we lost Jennifer and Isabel, but turns out they just had the wrong time for meeting back at the bus. There was a lot of worry going around while looking for the two of them. Additionally, the first robbery of our group almost took place. Luckily Andy was aware of her surroundings and swatted the thief's hand away before she could get into her bag. 

One more view, just for good measure. This time they knew I was taking a picture. 
Segovia, I will come back to visit some day. There are all kinds of things I want to know about that Alcazar and the people that live in such a beautiful place. Here's to another great day in Spain!


Comments

  1. I'm so jealous of you right now. I want to go to Spain! One day I will and thanks to you I will know some most see destinations :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Am I Proud to Be an American?

This weekend is the 4th of July, or Independence Day in the United States of America. One of my favorite songs during this time of celebrating the country is "God Bless the USA." The words paint a detailed picture of the beauty of the United States, both in a physical and emotional aspect. Our country is often depicted in a majestic manner such as this, making it seem like the greatest in the world and we often hear those bold words, "I'm proud to be an American."  With all of the issues that have been cropping up over the past couple of years such as impeachment, systemic racism, foreign intervention, and most significantly the COVID-19 pandemic, I have reflected deeply about what we celebrate with the 4th of July. These issues are just a few of the many that have made me wonder about the country we praise so proudly.  Am I really proud to be an American?  Thomas Jefferson wrote the candid words of the Declaration of Independence, which were th...

Book of Mormon Stories

Dear Reader, Today I simply want to share a story that has strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon over the years. Professor Felix Mynhardt was fluent in many languages, including English, Afrikaans, Hebrew and Egyptian, as well as many others. He was employed as a language professor when he had been praying that the Lord would give him some divinely important task that would justify his having this gift of language from God. In 1970 he visited with a group of Mormon leaders, who sought to commission him to translate the Book of Mormon from English into Afrikaans. He said that he knew of the Book of Mormon from his religions studies, and his initial reaction was that he did not want to be involved in translating it. However, that evening, as he prayed upon his knees, as was his habit, he said the Spirit of the Lord convinced him. The message was something on the order of, "You asked me for a great, divinely inspired task of translation, I sent it to you in the form o...

As Now We Take the Sacrament

Dear Reader, Normally I would apologize for a long absence, but the experience we had today just can't wait. I had an entirely new view on taking the sacrament because of a simple oversight by one of the boys passing the sacrament to us. Then the Bishop spoke and gave a little more perspective on spirituality. First, the sacrament. Today we attended our new ward in Kaysville and we were sitting on the front row of the overflow area in the chapel. As is customary with the sacrament meeting in the Church of Jesus Christ, the members of the Aaronic priesthood will bless the bread and water that represents Christ's flesh and blood before allowing the members of the congregation to partake of it. While they were passing around the bread on their trays, our row was somehow skipped. My wife, my in-laws and myself did not receive the bread while taking the sacrament. My father-in-law and I both did our best to attract the attention of those priesthood holders helping with the ...