Segovia, Spain

Our day trip to see the sights of Segovia, Spain

We got up at 7:30 am on our second morning in Madrid, bought a ten-ride (sharable) Metrobus ticket for 7.40 euros ($9.40), and made our way by subway to Chamartin train station. Our Avant (high-speed) train to Segovia was to leave at 10:30 am, and we arrived way too early (at 9:40 am), so we did lots of laps around the train station. We went to the track at 10:15 am, where we had to show our ticket and have our bags run through the X-ray machine. (The only other time we'd had so much train security was when we took the Eurostar!)

	Here we are in our assigned seats for the 30-minute ride to Segovia! The tickets were 15.10 euros ($20) per person, round-trip.
The train was beautiful, modern, clean, and nearly empty. The 10:30 am train is cheaper for a reason, I guess :)
	The train doesn't actually go to Segovia but to the Guiomar AVE station, where we changed to the #11 bus. Bus fare was the unusual 0.86 euros ($1.10) per person each way.
The bus dropped us off right at the base of the aqueduct and right next to the tourist office! (There's the bus in the background!)
	We stopped at the tourist office to get a map of Segovia and the bus schedule back to the AVE station. After that quick stop, we followed the lady at the tourist office's advice and started the climb up to the top of the aqueduct. Of course, the aqueduct is a UNESCO World Heritage Site!
What a view! To my mind, Segovia's Roman aqueduct is equal to Provence's Roman Pont du Gard.
	After walking to the top of the aqueduct and drooling, we made our way to Segovia's Plaza Mayor and on to the Alcazar at the edge of town.
Just another old building, right? Well, it just so happened to be called the Royal Chemical Laboratory . . . hmm . . . seems like I know something about Segovia and chemical history . . . what is it??

Oh, yeah, it's where Frenchman Joseph-Louis Proust discovered the Law of Definite Proportions!! It was so exciting to stumble upon this marker. (One of my students had discovered this connection in her report on Proust the previous school year.) How neat! The left photo's marker says "French chemist Louis Proust developed in the chemical laboratory of the Royal Artillery College an important educational work and investigation formulating in 1795 the Law of Definite Proportions." The right photo's marker says "The oxidation of metals in the hands of men is an operation subject to the laws of proportion determined by the same unalterable nature and by the human will."
	After the long, hot walk to the Alcazar and back, we were ready for lunch, but the tourist area of Segovia doesn't have many fast food options. We settled on a 4-pack of strawberry yogurt from the Dia grocery store (0.53 euros, $0.67), a hot ham-and-cheese croissant sandwich from a bakery (for 2.10 euros [$2.70]), and the pops we'd brought with us from Madrid. Luckily I had packed spoons!
I thought it was so fun to just be in a town and suddenly come upon an ancient Roman aqueduct!
	After lunch, we still had an hour before our 3:30 pm bus #11 would take us back to the AVE station so we could catch our 4:08 pm train back to Madrid. We decided to follow the aqueduct in the other direction and see where it led.
Interestingly enough, it led into just everyday-looking shops and homes. Notice how much lower it is here.
	There were stairs on the side, so we climbed up. Here, my mother is straddling the aqueduct.
She was braver than I was :)
	The aqueduct now ends here, at a busy intersection. A nice traveller from Venezuela took our picture with the end (and we took a picture for him, too).
It was just so cool to be able to touch the aqueduct!
	One of the most interesting parts of the aqueduct is this curve it makes before becoming the multiple-level arched bridge.
Here is a view of the aqueduct from the other side. The rectangle once had a message in it.
	While waiting for the bus, we got this last shot of the aqueduct and its curve around the corner. (We went up the stairs and followed the curve to the left to find the end of the aqueduct.)
Our bus arrived right on time.
	Here we are waiting for the train back to Madrid's Chamartin station. We had such a wonderful time in Segovia!

On to the next pictures