Today, May 1 was the National holiday of Labour Day – this was evident from the massive crowds compared to yesterday.
We walked down to the castle first as the light was brilliant so Dave was keen to take more photos. We had plans to visit the Cathedral and headed there first thing. We also opted for a guided visit of the tower as we thought the views would be incredible. The cathedral tower took 38 years to build from 1530 to 1568 and was the tallest in Spain. The tour was very well organised, there was a really good video presentation which ran through the history of the cathedral, we saw the bell ringer’s quarters and then got to the Bell tower at the top with spectacular views in all directions. It was well worth the 190 step climb up a spiral stairway and doubled up as a workout as well!! Spiral stairway in Spanish is ‘escalera de caracol’, which translates as snail stairs – this pretty much described my pace!!
We then went to the Plaza Mayor for coffee and typical cakes – rosquillas and ciegas – very light and delicious iced biscuits. That counted as breakfast and lunch as neither of us were hungry after our huge mound of meat last night!!
We strolled along to the Antonio Machado museum. Machado was a prominent Spanish poet who taught and lived in Segovia between 1919 and 1931. Many of his poems during that time were inspired by the regional landscape. The house is preserved as it was at the time when he lived there, so a typical boarding house of the 1920s.
We checked out of the hotel, fetched the van and drove to the Iglesia de La Veracruz as Dave thought it would be a great spot for alternative views of the castle. We took the opportunity to visit the inside of the small church – this was a 12 sided hexagon which from above looked like a circle. The 12 sides represent the 12 apostles. We continued uphill and stopped at the village of Zamarramala for views back down to the cathedral and the mountains beyond.
As we drove out of town, we passed a statue of Cándido, the proprietor of the restaurant we had visited the day before about to cut into the traditional cochinillo not with a knife but with a plate, showing how tender the meat is.
We had decided to stay in a campsite near Aranjuez ready for our visit to the palace there tomorrow. When we arrived the place was rammed due to the public holiday. There were loads of gorgeous but noisy children, hundreds of bone-shaking potholes that put the van through its paces and unfortunately they said we had to book for a minimum of three days and it wasn’t particularly cheap so we made a quick decision to divert to Chinchón about 11 miles away where we could park for the night for free in the van park and visit the centre where we had been 22 years earlier.
We found loads of space for the van in a large car park behind the castle on the hill. We wandered down into the town, which was just as beautiful as we remembered it.
We headed up to the viewpoint Mirador de La Iglesia on the opposite side of the main square where there was culture at every turn.
First we saw the Teatro Lope de Vega which was formerly the Palace of the counts of Chinchón – Lope de Vega had written and signed one of his famous plays there and so the theatre was named after him when it was constructed on the same site in 1891.
It was in this theatre that a young boy José Sacristán saw his first film and aspired to go into acting. He is now one of Spain’s most renowned and award-winning actors and has a plaque on this theatre, a statue in front of it and a street named after him. The statue depicts him as a child watching his first film from the gallery of the theatre.
Next to the theatre is the imposing church Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción which dates back to the 15th century. One of the main attractions inside this church is the original Goya painting above the altar – it’s very unusual to find this in such a location – the painting was gifted in 1812 by Goya to his brother who was the priest of Chinchón at the time. Normally you would have to go to a formal gallery to see these – El Prado in Madrid, for example, has 140 of his paintings.
After our early evening stroll, we settled into a bar in the main square and had a couple of drinks. We were very pleased to be able to reserve a table on one of the balconies in the Restaurante Plaza Mayor. I had always fancied eating on a balcony seat with that fantastic view out over the square. When we had visited previously, the balconies were full to bursting and we thought there was no hope of getting a place. So, we were very chuffed to get a reservation and then rather surprised that we were literally the only people in the whole restaurant 🤣 The proprietor told us that it was a very much a day trip destination so the restaurants were always buzzing for the late lunch but pretty empty in the evenings. We had a very nice set menu of typical local dishes. It was even quite cheap!!! A very relaxing evening and a welcome change of location.
Van tips:
Dave has started to use Copilot navigation system which is designed for larger vehicles. It gives really clear instructions and avoids the smaller roads, so great in a van.
We used the park4night app to identify places where overnight parking is allowed for tourist vehicles – either for free or for a minimal cost.