Sunday, January 19, 2014

Honeymoon: Spain Day 7 Segovia & La Rozas Village

The beautiful Segovia is relatively near Salamanca. By coach, it is a mere 1.5hours journey. Segovia is one of the favorite Spanish cities due to its culture and great heritage. It is located within the Iberian Peninsula, near the Spanish capital, Madrid (2 hours away). Hence, it is often made as a stop-over/day trip city from/to Madrid.

Segovia's top two attractions are the old town Aqueduct and the Alcazar of Segovia. Both are amazingly beautiful.

The Aqueduct of Segovia is located in the Plaza del Azoguejo. It is the most defined historical feature of Segovia, dating from the late first and second century. It is being crowned an UNESCO Heritage Site as it is being acknowledged as the most important Roman civil engineering work in Spain. The Aqueduct was built with 25,000 granite blocks which are held together without any mortar (how amazing is that?!) to supply water to the roman military fort on the hill. The aqueduct is approximately 818 meters long, 28 meters high and has approximately 170 arches.
 
Around the old town of Segovia...
The moutain that looks like a pregnant lady!
The Alcazar of Segovia is located on top of a rock between the rivers Eresma and Clamores. It exist in earlier time, way before 1122. It was one of the favorite residences of the kings of Castile. unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire in 1862 and was later rebuilt. Today, the Alcazar of Segovia is not only the inspiration from which Waltz Disney built his Snow White's Castle, it also houses the General Militar de Segovia archive and museum of the Royal School of Artillery.
Oh, Segovia has great pastries shops all around too! Do get some to try as the pastries in Spain typically cannot be found in Asia!


 
We had the best meal provided by the tour at Segovia: the suckling pig! Well, I'm not a pork person so to me the suckling pig still holds a relatively strong pork smell. However, it was still relatively good; tender and juicy meat with crispy skin. The guys were all asking for second helpings!

The waiter who served the meal, will first set the pig on fire before using a plate to chop the pig into equal pieces and thereafter, dropping the plate on the floor to signifiy the tenderness of the meat which makes  chopping using a porcelain plate possible.
 
Segovia is one beautiful city that should not be missed if you have time for a day trip from Madrid or make it a stop-over side trip, from Salamanca to Madrid. :)
Next we headed on to the La Rozas Village which is situated at the outskirts of Madrid. Rejoice to shopping! La Rozas is an outlet mall which host a wide range of brands including the famous Loewe. The mall offers deduction of past session designs at up to 80% from the retail price. You can find more information at their website: http://www.lasrozasvillage.com/
Honestly, I do not think that the selection there is good. Loewe has so little choices, of which, most are rather off colored Amazonas. Other USA brands like coach, MK and Guess doesn't feel like it is any cheaper after the rate conversion. The only good finds in the three hours that we were there, was Desigual and Loccitane. Loving the Desigual bags that were on offer. Each were priced at approximately 40EUROs.
After walking around for an hour plus, we went for dinner at a local casual fast food tapas shop. We ordered the local beer, Iberian ham and cheese bread pizza and potato cubes. For less than 15EUROs, the portion were so huge we hardy could finish the meal.
 
We sat around for the next hour before gathering at the entrance to coach to our Madrid hotel for the night. :)

Honeymoon Day 1 Barcelona   

Honeymoon Day 2 Valencia     

Honeymoon Day 3 Alicante & Guadix       

Honeymoon Day 4 Granada & Cordoba

Honeymoon Day 5 Seville       

Honeymoon Day 6 Caceres & Salamanca      

Honeymoon: Spain Day 8 Madrid & Toledo

Honeymoon: Spain Finale - Comerc 24

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