Saturday 2 April

25C Cloudy

Dinner last night was pretty ordinary....seafood paella (l had asparagus with lettuce and carrot), salad, chips, chicken cordon blue then custard for dessert. We were finished before 9.30 and in bed by 10.30. Up before 7 this morning and on our way to Segovia by 8.30. We enjoyed some scenery as we travelled to the edge of the Sierra de Guadarrama, a green oasis in the Castilian desert. There were lots of wind turbines and wineries again and l even saw a deer drinking from a stream and the first lot of bulls. We arrived in Segovia which is perched on a rock formation at an altitude of 1000 metres. The Alcazar (castle) and the Roman aqueduct were the main things we saw. The aqueduct was built in the early 2nd century using granite blocks with no mortar to join them and was amazing. It was built to bring water from the Acebeda river to the upper districts of the city. It's 728 metres long and contains a total of 167 arches. On the way to the Alcazar we saw lots of amazing streets, houses and churches. Arriving at the Alcazar, which is a civil building it was originally built as a fortress then converted into a palace. In 1762 King Carlos III installed the Artillery College in it and it now houses the General Military Archives. The rooms and ceilings were fantastic and l even had a photo taken with a knight in shining armour! The views were magnificent and it's said that Walt Disney used this castle as his theme. We spent 2 hours in Segovia which really isn't enough time to explore. After a quick lunch in a quiet little square we found our way back to the bus and we drove to Avila. Here the town is surrounded by walls which are 1000 years old. we tasted the local confectionary called Jamas which is just egg yolk and icing sugar. It didn't have much taste and was very sweet. Mum reckons it'd be better with a bit of lemon. We stayed here for an hour and then it was time to leave for Salamanca. For the last part the countryside was very rocky. Arrived in Salamanca at 5.15. Dinner is at 8 so we'll go for a bit of a walk beforehand. The weather today has been pretty good but not very sunny. Dinner was very nice....we had some type of vege soup, l had an omelette while the others had pork loin for main and then we had a gelati for dessert. Looks like it's gonna be an early night tonight...yaaay!