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!