We woke up Friday morning and hopped back in our trusty van and started making our way back toward Madrid with our destination being Segovia, about an hour outside of Madrid. We always got excited when we saw these iconic bulls on the side of the road. I actually looked up how many of these exist in the country of Spain and the current count is 90. I think we probably saw 5-6 of them on this trip.
Our first stop of the day was to see the walled city of Astorga with its Gaudi palace and Cathedral.
The Gaudi palace
Gaudi standing outside his creation.
A look inside.
Walking around the gardens outside.
Seeing it from every angle is so cool.
The Cathedral is right next to the Palace. You can see them side by side in this picture.
Then we made our way to the Cathedral.
And, as per usual, we made our way to the top of the tower!
At the top! Waiting for the bells to ring...
I spy Seth looking for a "bathroom" at the park where we stopped for a picnic lunch.... 😜
And then we eventually arrived at Segovia where we checked into our former convent for the night. This was one of my favorite hotels of the trip!
Aurea Convento Capuchinos used to be the Oblatas Convent and was turned into a 5-star hotel. It was beautiful and unique and historic and just so cool to explore and sleep here.
Our room
The view from our window.
Our Room (#313)
While the inside has been renovated to be transformed into a hotel, the outside of this building, built in 1637 remains unchanged.
The beautiful view from our room of Eresma Valley
The former cloister/garden area is now an outdoor eating area.
Once we checked into our rooms and dropped off our luggage, we headed out to the city to explore.
Plaza de San Martin with its Juan Bravo statue.
Our first sighting of Segovia's 2000-year old Aquaduct.
Next to the Aquaduct is Meson de Candido, the most famous restaurant in Segovia, which serves its local specialty cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig), so of course we had to eat here!
We had 8:00 reservations and were the first people there. But by the time we left at ~9:30, this place was PACKED! I can't get over how late the Spaniards eat!
Trying the roast suckling pig 🐷
Seth posing with the pig's tail
Full tummies outside the restaurant
And then we decided to explore the Aquaduct by night en route back to our hotel.
A lightning storm hit as we started walking back and it made the sky look so incredible as a backdrop to the Aquaduct.
Goodnight Segovia....
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