Missy - To Segovia

One of the organizing forces of this trip has been “But when are we ever going to be in Spain again?”.

Originally, as the name of this blog suggests, this trip was all about, and only about, doing the Camino De Santiago. That was my deal. It is a pilgrimage or a hike, depending on who you are,  to the city of Santiago de Compestella on the far west coast of Spain. Santiago is the traditionally cited burial place of St. James the apostle. In the Middle Ages it was used as the carrot and stick for pushing the Moors out of Spain. At that time one of the titles for Saint James was the Moor killer. It was pretty political and of course very religious. 

You could get assigned the pilgrimage by a court for particularly heinous crimes or you could assign it to yourself to get absolution for big sin like murder. You could even, if you were rich enough,  outsource it to someone with more time to walk a long way.  Your sponsorship earned you quite a lot but not as much as if you did it yourself , especially in terms of street cred. 

Because I am super into history and because I am religious and because of an abortive attempt at the Appalachian trail in the 90s I wanted to try this Camino myself. 

I am in bed now in Segovia having just eaten a massive tapas and extras meal for a very reasonable price because mom wanted to see Segovia. Yesterday I was in Burgos walking through one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world because Michelle wanted to see Burgos. 

I am so glad that we have done these things. My life is richer for their influence. 

This morning we packed up and left the Burgos apartment. I loved that place. It was peaceful and quiet and safe. It had great light and a hand grocery store and enough rooms for privacy. 

Michelle and I both felt we could happily have moved there and just stayed. 

Instead our wonderful hostess called us a cab and we went to the train station and rode into Segovia. 

Today we split up a lot. We sat apart on the train. 

We took different cabs to different places once we arrived.  Then we wound up eating separately. 

We crossed paths checking into the hostle then split up again for site seeing. 

After my sugar plus chai caffeine rush of yesterday I opted for a much more suitable green tea and lemon muffin sort of thing today. 

I have a small Camino pin on my hat and an Australian pilgrim noticed it and struck up a conversation with us as we ate. She’s done this every year or thereabouts for the last 15 years. 

We browsed more confectionery and dropped our stuff in the hostle and went off to explore. 

It was sunny and hot and there were little alleyways and narrow golden stone lined streets everywhere. 

It felt much more touristy than Burgos. 

We heard so many different languages and smelled so many wonderful foods. 

Traveling down the hill from the cathedral we passed a bustling shopping district and came around a bend to see this aqueduct. 

This is the reason that mom wanted to come. 

It’s a first century Roman creation. The stones are without mortar. 

It is massive and incredible. 

Please read about it here

I am a child and had determined to touch it if it wasn’t roped off. 

I was ridiculously pleased with myself here. 

Then we went and got some vegetarian tapas. 

This turned out to be a plate of cheese with little baguette shaped crackers. 

Ha

I told the lady at the bar I was vegetarian and she made a noise somewhere between fed up and desperate. Then she got a determined look on her face and said “Si! Queso.”

Afterwards went to the Segovia cathedral. 

It was full of brutal bloody Christianity. It was crucifixion and martyrdom in lots of gory detail. 

Mom was going to light a candle for her parents. All the candles were LEDs. She put in a 2 euro coin and about 50% of them lighted up. She says she’s now saved her entire family from purgatory 

It was pretty funny. 

Just as we were rounding the inner courtyard the skies opened up. 

I was so pleased to be under cover. We went into the basement gallery and thunder rumbled above. 

The paintings, many from the 1500s, were so vibrant. 

I love the relatable parent child interaction here of baby wanting moms food and mom giving some heartfelt side eye. 

Look at these massive hymnals. Zoom in to see an early form of music notation. 

It stopped raining and got quite chilly. Mom bought a shawl. 

It started raining again as we were about to meet up with the gang for dinner so we dove into an intriguing candy shop. 

We found that dinner wouldn’t be served until much later (8 as it turned out) so we went back to the hostal to rest for a bit. 

Then it was out again in search of patatas bravas. 

Look at this beautiful door (also my sweet boy who likes Segovia much better than Burgos). 

We made it to tapas at last. 

We shared a ton of Spanish food: castle soup? and  gazpacho and local cheeses and patatas bravas with 3 sauces and salad and Serrano ham and sangria. I told the waiter I was vegetarian and he said I should try the grilled veggie platter ( it was great) and there were some regular meal things too. 

We ate till we were stuffed and waddled back to the hostel at 9:30 or so. 

There is a bar across the street and they are singing with great enthusiasm just outside my understanding.