World Heritage and Don Quixote.

Today we went to Segovia and I have so many photos to add, but very little internet to do it with!!!  Segovia is a World Heritage listed area and was established BC and seems to have been in everyones control at some stage over the ensuing 2000 years.  There are two parts that are immediately amazing, those being the castle and the viaduct.

The castle has so many different styles of building making it up.  My fav bits were the Gothic parts with the black slate roofs and the spires poking up.  It has been a castle, an armoury and for two centuries it was a prison.  Now it has been restored in the hope that tourism with revive the city that has dwindled since Madrid became capital of Spain and since industry moved there as well.

The second cool thing is a Aquaduct that originally went 15 miles and was made by the Romans at  some very early time.  The majority of it is under ground and made with slate rock that forms a shoot.  Once it reaches Segovia, it comes out of the ground and along the surface, until it requires significant support structures to keep the right degree to have the water flow evenly.  To this end, they have build a structure that is nearly 100m high in places and was made by slaves, very clever slaves if you ask me!  The water was then channelled into houses and the people of this area had running water so early in history, when in other areas of Spain, they were still filling from the town square in the 1950s!

There is a building created by the Knights Templar, that is a 12 sided construction and if you follow Dan Brown, this will immediately interest you!  Made completely of pre-cut stones that fit together in much the same way as the viaduct.  So very interesting!!  I have a video, but I suspect it won't load.  I will try again tomorrow at a different hotel.

...and for some reason, this photo loaded!!!!!
Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza.

So this afternoon, we have been for a tour of Madrid, in the bus.  The best part for me was a park, close to the centre of Madrid, where there is a monument to Don Quixote, which is a book written by Miguel de Cervantes.  It was turned into a musical and the reason I even know it is that it may well be the first movie I ever went to see.  Dad took all of us and it was way to complex a story line for  little kids to understand, but it was the movies and it was Dad taking us somewhere without Mum, so both were pretty rare events, hence sticking in my head.  If you attended Dad's funeral, 'The Impossible Dream' was the music Doug aptly chose for Dad.  Cool and just goes to show how random stuff, in another country, can make you feel part of something much larger.  Thanks Dad.

We Kiwi's got off the bus in the middle of Madrid and wandered for about 3 hours.  We ate and couldn't believe how busy it was and how people really do come out at night, after sleeping all day!  One of our guides, as self confessed night owl, went to bed at 2 and met us at 7!  See Ian, I'm not so bad!!!

We finally getting back to the motel room about 8.30pm and we are off tomorrow morning.  These are long days, but very worth it!