Saturday:
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Gardens at La Granja |
This
morning we met the rest of our class at Plaza San Pablo for our trip
to Segovia. We hadn't been to Plaza San Pablo yet even though it's
just down the street from our apartment. It also has an amazing
church, la iglesia de San Pablo, that was built in the 16th
century. We took the bus for a little over an hour and first we
stopped at La Granja, which is a little town just outside of Segovia.
There was a palace there and enormous gardens that we explored for a
little while.
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Cathedral in Segovia |
When
we got to Segovia, we got off the bus at the aqueducts, a two
thousand year old Roman structure that they used to transport water through the city. What is amazing about them is that the Romans didn't use anything to
bond the stones together. They're just held together by gravity and
the tension in the arches.
Sergio
led us down the main street of Segovia, past shops and restaurants,
and we stopped to look at the the cathedral of Segovia. It was one
of my favorite buildings so far because I love Gothic architecture.
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El Alcázar in Segovia |
We
continued walking until we reached El Alcázar, a mix between a
castle and a palace built in the sixteenth century. The tour of
the Alcázar was amazing. It was full of suits of armor, furniture,
tapestries, paintings, murals, stain glass windows, weapons, and had
different ceilings in every room. We could also go outside on the
walls. We climbed up a narrow spiral staircase of 152 steep stairs
to the top of the tower, where we had a great view of Segovia. I
have a lot more photos, mainly of the Alcázar and the aqueducts, on
Facebook. To see them go to:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3553695803896.2132207.1317690207&type=3&l=6a42a74eb4 . We used the rest of our
free time to go shopping before we got back on the bus.
Back
in Valladolid, Alberto showed us more of his favorite places to go
for tapas. They were delicious and very inexpensive.
Sculptures,
Week 2: Sunday
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Aqueducts in Segovia |
Today
we had a class trip to the sculpture museum in Valladolid. The
pieces were really awesome, but I kind of wish we could have gone
through on our own rather than had a guided tour. The guide talked
for a long time about some pieces then sped us past others.
Otherwise we just did homework for the rest of the day because I have
a presentation about the conquest of the Aztecs tomorrow.
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