Visita a El Alcázar (Visit to the Alcázar)

We went to the Alcázar of Segovia the day before we left for the United States. We bought our tickets in the building in the plaza of the Alcázar and with our student cards, tickets to the towers and general admission were €5. 

We headed into the Alcázar and entered into the Patio de las Armas.

Off the side of that was the start of the museum. The first room had suits of armor, some of which were very small. (I don't know if it was actually armor or just a model. I'm going with a model.)

After that, we headed into the next room, which was a small dining room. Following that was a really cool throne room with a beautiful stained glass window. I think this room was one of my favorite rooms. 

After that we continued going through different rooms. One of the next rooms was a dining room with a long table. Around the top of the walls, different images of kings and queens were painted, which I also thought was really interesting and beautiful. 

Following the pathway, we went past a bedroom (the bed was tiny!) and a small chapel. We also saw a lot of stained glass windows, which I really liked cause I've always liked stained glass. The views from the Alcázar were also stunning.

At the end, there was an exit to the patio del pozo, where you could see the land behind the Alcázar. I really liked this area because it was really pretty and looked picturesque. 

We started heading out and went through the second main patio, the patio del reloj.

We looked off of it and there was a room where you could look at different armor for both horses and humans. There were also cannons and cannon balls as well as flags. 

After all of this, we headed up to the towers, which was so cool! Going up and down was really tight because the towers were only really made for one person but people were going up and down. However, once you got up to the top, you could see all of Segovia and it was gorgeous. 

We headed out after that, a good way to end our last excursion like activity while in Spain.

La Noche de la Luna Llena (the Night of the Full Moon)

This festival was held on the 4 and 5th of July from 8:00 pm to 2:00 am. It was held all over Segovia, with different activities in the many plazas and courtyards. This festival basically brings together a bunch of different artist, who showcase different art pieces, most of which tend to be interactive.

We started out in the plaza near the aqueduct and got to see a walk through heart made out of lights, plastic tubbing, and wood. The artist said that she the walk through was created in the shape a of the heart and the lights were supposed to represent the stars.

We then headed up to the plaza mayor. Along the way, there were three ice sculptures. As they melted, blocks of string were revealed. The artist said that the point of these sculptures was to represent that as people touched the ice and melted it, that the string (the culture) was revealed. I really liked this piece because of the symbolism.

We saw a few more pieces but we didn't really stop at them.

Once we got to the plaza mayor, they had really cheap drinks and fruit kebabs. I got both and the drink tasted like a version of a Limon soft drink but an expensive version. The fruit kebab was great and I early enjoyed it. It was really sweet and there was a powder on it that made it even sweeter but it didn't feel like sugar. We then headed to a bar, where some of the people started to dance. I decided to head home because I was tired and so left them there.

If you want to read more or view pictures from other years, here are some links. However, (obviously) all are in Spanish, so if you don't speak Spanish, you'll have to translate it. 

Article on the festival in 2015: http://www.presspeople.com/nota/noche-luna-llena-2015-segovia

Excursión a Cuellar y Coca (Excursion to Cuellar and Coca)

We started off in Cuellar. We began at the castle. We didn't go in but we took a cool photo in front of it and walked around. After that, we walked to a restaurant. We arrived early and so we walked around the market. They had a lot of pretty clothes and it was surprising that there was so much   clothing instead of food. 

After that we headed to the restaurant. Before we had gone, our teachers had made us pick what we wanted so the restaurant could prepare it ahead of time. When we got there, we were seated at about 5 or 6 tables. They had bread for us and served croquetas as appetizers (they were amazing!). Then they brought out the first dish. Our options were a pasta with tomato sauce, a salad, or a vegetable pastry. I chose the salad, which I really enjoyed because the dressing was really good. It had tomatoes, which I don't eat and so I pushed them to the side. When the waiter picked up my plate, he sort of laughed at me and thought it was funny that I didn't eat the tomatoes. 

After that we had our main dish. We could chose from a chicken dish, a jam dish, or a veggie dish. I chose the ham dish and got ham with gravy and fries. It was amazing and I really enjoyed it. For desert they had flan or a yogurt dish. I chose the flan and I liked it okay but it still is not my favorite dish.

After this, we headed to the bus, that then drove us to the castle in Coca.

 This castle was only used for defense and the family only stayed here if they needed to be protected, so there were no large living quarters.

 We went up in the towers and saw where the family would stay if they were in danger, which was actually pretty small and then we also got to go on the top of the castle and see the amazing view. 

    

We got to see an area right below the top of the castle where they kept armor and weapons.

At one point, he showed us a room where you could stand in a corner and whisper into the wall and here someone very loudly on the other side. If you stood in the middle, it would echo above you and it was a very weird feeling. The guide also showed us the dungeon. In medieval times, there was no light for the dungeon and the prisoners would be lowered through a hole quite far up in the ceiling. The dungeon was round to confuse the prisoners on where they were in the room and the walls were flat so they couldn't climb up. During the restoration, the crew had cut a door in the dungeon and installed a light so that tourists could actually go in and the guide turned off the light while we were in there. It was pretty creepy. After descending, we hopped back on the bus and headed to the bodega (winery).

The guide there explained how they made there wine and  showed us the facilities they used. He showed us the barrels which held their wine and then took us to the main room, where he let us sample two different wines that they had produced. I do not like the taste of wine (or alcohol in general) so I didn't drink much but the others who liked wine seemed to like it and many bought a bottle to take back to their families.  

After this, we hopped back on the bus and headed back to Segovia.

El Palacio Real de la Granja de San Ildefonso (The Royal Palace ofLaGranja de San Ildefonso)

How to get there:

We took a bus from the bus station. You can't buy your tickets ahead of time. You just buy them on the bus when you get on. I can't tell you the exact stop because we got off at the one before and had to walk to La Granja (we did get to see some of the town which was cool).

Special Events:

Two days of the summer, the fountains are turned on. Because of the drought, they can't do it that often and so on only a few select days of the summer do they actually turn the fountains on. It just happened that we went on one of these days on the 25th of July.

Our Trip:

After arriving at La Granja, we purchased our tickets at the ticket counter. Showing our student IDs got us the reduced ticket, which was around 4€, which included access to the palace and the gardens. After that, we followed the signs to enter the palace (NOTE: you can not take pictures in the palace but you can take pictures in the garden). We got to see a lot of years architecture, which was stunning. I really enjoyed the bottom floor more than the top floor. The bottom floor had more statues and was more Greek, which is probably why I liked it more. 

We then headed to the gardens. We ate lunch on a bench next to a little river feature. We then started to walk up the hill. On the way, we saw multiple fountains (not on of course). The statues in the fountain all looked to be related to mythology, mostly Greek and roman. It was really fun trying to figure out who was who.

We continued walking up the hill and made it to a good sized lake, which was gorgeously blue.

We walked around and found a man made waterfall feature, which was also really beautiful.

We then headed down towards the palace again, seeing gorgeous fountains and plant features. The viewer form higher up the hill of the palace was really pretty and looked a lot like Versailles, since La Granja is actually a smaller version of Versailles. There is a grand foundation leading to the middle  of the palace, which was probably my favorite fountain. 

We then headed to the small cafe they had to get a snack. I got a granizado ( basically a slushie). I got the Fanta Limon one. There were some more controlled gardens in front of the outdoor cafe which was were really pretty. 

We headed to the left side of palace, where there was a large fountain and passed that and few more gardens to find the labyrinth. We entered and it started out okay but we got to a point where you could see through the shrubs and it sort of got a little creepy as well as boring (because it wasn't taken care of and there were no statues or anything in the labringht). We headed out and made our way the fountain we had passed to get there to wait for the first fountain to be turned on. 

Basicallyhow this fountain event worked was that they would turn on one fountain for a little while and then the whole crowd would follow a man with a flag to the next fountain, which would turn on as the previous fountain turned off. We stayed for the first two fountains and then decided to leave because there were so many people and not a lot of space to actually see the fountains. By not following he crowd after the second fountain, we actually got a good view of the second fountain which was nice. We then headed to the bus stop (the correct one this time). 

It was really interested because people made sure to remember the order in which people arrived so that everyone got on the bus in the order that they arrived. When a new person arrived, they would ask  who was at the end of the line and then they would make sure to get on behind that person. See even had someone look at us as we were lining up to get on the bus and move us in front of someone else because they remembered that we arrived before the others. We made friends with some of the older ladies and men because of this and one lady was extremely funny and outspoken so it was neat. I also liked that they did this line up system because by the time the bus arrived, there were too many people to get on the bus but because we were one of the first to arrive, we were guaranteed a spot with this system. 

After getting on the bus, we drove home to the bus station, where we then proceeded to walk, to our houses.