Tuesday, Oct 12th - Segovia

I felt much better in the AM (albeit hung over), but S complained he couldn’t eat enough of the €21 breakfast for it to be worthwhile. We took the subway to the northern train station & set off for Segovia (which has an incredible Roman aqueduct). Took many, many pictures of the incredible Roman aqueduct. Found one museum of local art open – it had v backhanded praise for one featured 18th century artist – about his longevity & relentless pursuit of detail.

The old Jewish quarter had a reconstructed church that had once been a synagogue, with an account at the back of how it had been seized around 1410 after some Jews bought a consecrated Host and tried to burn it, then confessed under torture to having tried to poison the king. They were dragged through the city & dismembered. The placard was at some pains to say that the accuracy of the accusations (or lack thereof) couldn’t be verified.

I got v. indignant & vented some in Spanish to a docent at the nearby “Center for Jewish Learning”, which had a video of a service at a synagogue & various ritual objects w/ explanations. She said one had to allow for how long Spain was closed to the rest of the world – divorce had only been allowed for 20 yrs.

The main drama of the day – the admissions lady at the cathedral glanced up at me & Steve and said “2 seniors”. I was DEVASTATED. S wanted me to explain in Spanish that we weren’t EU citizens. The cathedral was made of a golden local limestone – much less ornate than Toledo’s (a good thing), with a beautiful Gothic cloister.

Anyway, we ate lunch after seeing the cathedral, but were out of luck in that the Provincial Museum didn’t reopen after lunch (it being a holiday). The Alcazar was mostly a reconstruction after a 19th century fire – but v. impressive, with the deepest moat I’d ever seen. It does look v. Disney-ish, with its turrets & crenelated tower.

Came back to Madrid, took a different subway back to the hotel & stopped by a tapas place the hotel desk & Fodors had both recommended (the place had been jammed every other time we went by). I was uncertain at first how to order, but we were eventually settled at a table w/ a tuna salad, vg bread, a huge plate of canapés, with beer for S and wine for me. I was so happy and everything tasted so good.