We headed off from the terminal and past numerous armed Guardia Civil – always quite disconcerting!! As we followed the ‘out way’ signs we doubted the ability of the port translator! We were very grateful that the tunnels through the mountains were all lit up. On Monday, Spain and Portugal had had one of the most severe blackouts in recent history with some areas without power for 18 hours. We were relieved that we did not arrive on Monday!!
We decided to have a fuel (cheaper than Southampton!!!) and coffee stop fairly early on our journey down the A67 and stopped off at Arenas de Iguña. It was very rural, with beautiful hills all around and cows with new calves in the fields and with typical Spanish hospitality. I got my first fix of Spanish as one of the locals sat in front of the restaurant, complimented our campervan!! (Bonita furgoneta!) Dave had a lovely chat with the garage attendant. He was keen to practice his English and tell Dave how much the price of fuel had dropped since last year. The café/restaurant was a typical Spanish find with excellent coffee, four types of freshly made tortilla and the buzz of local conversation. It’s good to be back!!
The journey down to Segovia was pretty smooth and it was beautiful to see the snow tipped mountains as we approached. We decided to break up the month this time with a few hotel stays and not have every night in the van. The hotel Don Felipe that we’d booked for the first night had advised us to park next to the bullring, as, being in the old town, there was no space for campervan parking. We were very pleasantly surprised to discover that the huge car park next to the bullring was free. There were lots of other caravans there, so it felt like a good place to leave the van.
We hopped in a taxi, which took us past the aqueduct and into the old town. The accommodation was lovely and staff very friendly with loads of recommendations. We headed off to the Plaza Mayor and passed the church of San Miguel where in 1474 Isabel La Católica was crowned queen of Castile with processions through the city. We tried to get tapas in El Sitio but it was very busy and there was just a tiny bit of standing space near the bar, so we booked for that evening instead. We had a nice walk around the town and bought a meal deal of jamón Serrano baguette with a drink and amazing pork scratchings (Toreznos) so Dave was very happy!!
We then retired for a short siesta after our early start and a bit of onward journey planning. Our second walk of the day was to the castle, through the Jewish quarter and down to the aqueduct. We had taken the boys to this castle with Stuart, Elaine and the girls when living in Madrid and it was the inspiration for the Disney castle . When we got down to the aqueduct, it was typically buzzing with everyone out for their evening walk. Even though it was only Wednesday, some of the bars were full to bursting. We had a good look at the third generation Restaurante Candido next to the aqueduct where Dave had been 23 years ago whilst learning Spanish when we lived in Madrid. It is a famous restaurant which has hosted politicians, royalty and many famous people such as Sophia Loren over the years.
We then walked up the side of the aqueduct to get some more views of it, absolutely stunning. We then wanted a quick non-alcoholic drink and eventually found some space outside at a cafeteria with a nice view of the aqueduct.
We eventually got to our restaur
ant 10 minutes before our booking and were told to wait in the bar while the entry of the guests into the actual restaurant part was carefully choreographed!!! It was a very typical traditional restaurant which was renowned for its quality cochinillo (roast suckling pig) – Segovia is one of the places to have this. The service was fantastic and the decor typically traditional Spanish with some nice artwork and exposed beams. Despite having spent half the day in the car, we’d managed to build up a fairly good step count with our ambling around the city!!