Spain – Madrid & Segovia | Personal

It’s been a year and I just haven’t gotten around to blogging our family trip to Spain!  Before I get into wedding season I thought I would share the highlights of our trip.  We started in Madrid with a side trip to the fantastic village of Segovia.  Then we took the train South to Seville during Holy week.  After 3 nights there we rented a car and drove through the white hilltop villages of Andalusia for a few days before arriving in Granada.  After our time in Granada we ended our trip in Barcelona!  We were gone just short of 3 weeks.  It was an amazing adventure.  We stayed in Airbnb’s throughout our trip and met some beautiful people.

We arrived in Madrid early in the morning after flying through the night.  We could not keep our eyes open, so we ended up taking a good nap before setting out to explore the city.  We wandered around that afternoon and found the famous Chocolateria San Gines for our first chocolate & churros.  We got an early start the next day and did a segway tour that was one of the highlights of our trip!  We spent 3 days in Madrid and then took a side trip by high speed train to Segovia.  Ah Segovia!!!!  That was one of my favourite days!  A roman aqueduct, a flamboyant cathedral and fairy tale castle – what more can you ask for!

Our pretty Airbnb in Madrid.

Chocolate and Churros is a popular delight in Madrid.

Our Segway tour with Enrique.  This is us in the famous Plaza Mayor.

Enrique took us through the streets of Madrid, through Retiro Park and the Crystal Palace.  He showed us all kinds of cool things that we wouldn’t have found on our own.  It was such a fun way to get acquainted with the city and my boys loved it.

After our tour and some lunch we set out to see the Cathedral de la Alumna.

Then we went across the square and toured the grandiose Royal Palace.

The palace has 2800 rooms and is 1.5 million square feet.  It’s Europe’s largest palace.

I love the street signs in Spain!  They are ceramic tiles up on the sides of the buildings.  So beautiful.  Also lots of graffiti everywhere.

On our third day in Madrid we explored the Gran Via with it’s cool architecture and visited the famous Prado museum.

Loved Segovia!!!  Our side trip out of Madrid.  Train and then a bus that dropped us off right in front of the roman aqueduct and my heart was stolen!  I just loved it!!

The Aqueduct is 2000 years old!  The romans built this aqueduct when Segovia was a roman military base that needed water.  It is 2500 feet long and 100 feet high.  It has 118 arches made from 20,000 granite blocks without any mortar and can still carry a stream of water.  How cool is that!

We took the day to explore this quaint village.

We found the old city walls and took a walk along them.

This is Spain’s last major gothic building.  The cathedral was not as frilly on the inside, but we were able to see the private, sacred side chapels built in the 16th century.

Streets of Segovia.

At the far end of Segovia was the Alcazar (castle).  It was a palace, a prison for 200 years, a royal artillery school and now it’s a museum.

After exploring inside we climbed the 152 stairs up to the top of the tower for a spectacular view of Segovia and the cathedral.

That aqueduct was the coolest sight for me.  We walked back to it a different way then we left it.  It was so cool to walk around the corner and there is was!

Stay tuned for Seville in my next post.