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.