It is only half an hour by modern, clean, punctual high speed train to Segovia, some 60 miles northwest of Madrid. A very picturesque walled city, famous for the 2000 year old aqueduct which runs through the town, two tiers of over 160 graceful arches, 30m high and 700m long, still standing impressively without any cement or mortar to hold the stones together. At the other end of the old town overlooking the surrounding plain is the fairy tale castle, which unlike the aqueduct was rebuilt in a rather fanciful Disney style at the end of the 19th century after a fire.
For lunch we sampled typical local dishes in a restaurant in what had been the Jewish quarter, in a house built in 1470 for a rabbi who was also the king's tax collector and when the ruins were renovated for the hotel, beautiful original painted beamed ceilings were found. They also offered a menu based on the old Jewish cuisine, but more than we could eat, accompanied by kosher wine, which the waiter told me is made all over Spain, I presume most of it for export.
Back in Madrid yesterday we went to the Reina Sofia Museum and after our exhausting experience at the Prado we stuck to one floor and Picasso's Guernica, its most famous painting, surrounded by crowds of tour groups, all huddled blankly around their guide and none of them actually looking at it, so we outflanked them all and went straight to the front for a good view without anyone noticing or caring.
We had tapas (far too many as usual) in what is said to be the oldest taberna in the city, named after the founder's son, gored to death by a bull in the 17th century. At the next table was an Israeli, all the way from Tel Aviv to give a 4 minute presentation of his innovation project, in person, at his telecommunications company's Madrid headquarters! He asked if we would listen to his presentation and check the English, which we happily did over coffee. Who knows, we may have changed the course of history.