On Friday afternoon as Beth and I were making our way to our hotel in Madrid I received the above text. If you're family, you already know the Whites. If not, just a brief introduction. Richard White is Beth's cousin. He's a fine gentleman, scholar, fisherman and now I guess we have to add camel jockey. Along with him on the camels are his equally amazing wife Mei-Ling and two of their three children, Richard and Phillip. Their daughter, Juliana is currently living in Seoul, South Korea and missed out on the camel ride The White's are travelers, who have wandered across much of the globe themselves, so we weren't completely surprised to get the text from them riding camels in Marrakesh.
They were in Northern Africa on one side of the Strait of Gibraltar. We were in Spain on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar. We were practically neighbors!
As fate would have it they were going to be flying to Madrid on Saturday afternoon. They would be staying Saturday night in Segovia, which is just a thirty minute ride on one of the express trains from Madrid. At this point planning the rendezvous was pretty simple. Beth and I were planning a day trip from Madrid for one day. We had narrowed our choices down to a few places and Segovia was one of them. So this morning we were off to Segovia!
We met in front of the huge Segovia Cathedral, one of Segovia's three main landmarks. There were hugs, high fives and handshakes all around. After catching up on each others adventures, as well as Richard and Phillips recent accomplishments (Richard completing his undergraduate program and Philip graduating from high school) we were off to explore the city and it's other two main landmarks, the Alcazar Castle and the Roman Aqueduct.
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| The Whites and The Tuckers meeting up in front of the Segovia Cathedral |
The first reference of the Alcazar Castle was in 1120. It's original purpose was to serve as a fortress protecting the city of Segovia. Over the centuries it has also been a Royal Palace, state prison, college and military academy. The original castle was destroyed by fire on March 6, 1862 and has since been rebuilt. It now serves as a museum and in 1985 was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (we seem to be coming across a lot of this on this adventure). Some of the pictures below may remind you of another castle, and that's not a coincidence. Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World was partly inspired by the Alcazar Castle.
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| Looking up at the Alcazar Castle from the banks of the Eresma River |
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| In front of the Alcazar Castle. In this picture make note of the top of the castle tower.... |
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| ...….. this picture was taken from the tower you made note of in the previous picture, |
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| Happiness is spending Sunday afternoon with the White Family in Segovia |
After visiting the castle and climbing the 156 steps up the tower, it was time for lunch. A quick trip advisor search and we were off to the Restaurante El Sitio. The restaurant was located on a side street away from the main tourist streets. While it's not always true, this usually means better quality food at less cost. This certainly was the case today. After a toast to travel and adventure, we enjoyed a great meal of roasted suckling pig, which is the regional specialty of Segovia. For as good as the food was, the fellowship was even better.
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| A toast to travel and adventure! |
We also enjoyed visiting the Roman Aqueduct, which is the symbol for the city of Segovia. The original construction of the aqueduct was believed to have been in the first century AD. Until the twentieth century it supplied water from the Frio River, which is located 11 miles away from the city. There are a total of 167 arches from the point the aqueduct enters the city until it reaches the Plaza de Diaz Sanz. It's an impressive site to see and to imagine the engineering that went into designing such an important structure so many centuries ago.
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| Supplying water to the city for centuries |
We had a train to catch back to Madrid and the White's had other places to see before reaching their destination for tonight. Which ironically is Salamanca. I passed along my Salamanca map and a few recommendations. We said our good byes and we were off our separate ways.
We'll see all of them but Phillip at the beach house in a few weeks, but crossing paths in Segovia was extra special. It's likely to happen again since we did the same thing in Hawaii about 15-16 years ago.
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| Great Picture! The only thing missing is the photographer. |
