Segovia Seco-villa

We took another quick day trip to Segovia, the home of the famous Aqueducts and cochinillo.

The Aqueducts are HUGE and over 2000 years old. That blew my mind. The Romans built them without cement and they have survived an earth quake, bombings from the Civil War, tornados, etc. 16 kilometers long, made of 168 arches, each stone weighs 2000 kilograms, and there are 20,400 stones in total. It is all completely intact too. all that has changed is a few inscriptions have been lost. One of the coolest things I've seen since being here, and I had seen pictures and thought it would be eh. I didn't know I would like it so much.

We then went to see the cathedral of Segovia which looks nothing like a cathedral, it looks like some Muslim Complex.
The inside was really cool.

I feel like every trip we go on, the weather is rainy and cloudy, but it makes for pretty cool pictures cause everything has this glow to it and the light isn't too powerful.

Inside they had impressive organs and very high ceilings. Everything I learned about cathedrals in Humanities 101 was coming back to me; the crucifix floor layout, the windows from the high walls so light can come down like it's coming from heaven, etc. The picture below is a picture of a semi new cathedral in Madrid (built in the 1900's). It shows the light coming in and reflecting off some of the coolest organ pipes I have seen:
We later went and saw the Castle in Segovia. This is the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty so all the Americans know it as the Disney Castle.










This chapel is really cool, but you have to take a little hike in order to see it. La Iglesia de Vera Cruz. Apparently it's the SAME exact church as the one in Jerusalem. It's main shape has 12 sides for the 12 tribes of Israel. It was closed once we got there, but it was cool to at least see it!


Then we went to this little chapel in town. John Rosenburg wrote a talk about it, if you haven't read it, look it up under BYU talks. This picture is of what he talks about: how the artist wrote in Latin, "this painting cannot be finished." (you can't see the writing in this picture) The artist stopped the painting and Rosenburg relates it to how Christ is something personal and how the Atonement is what makes us whole. It was JUST our group in this chapel and some guy came and had to open it for us. Super cool experience. It was a hidden little place.

This is Cochinillo:

It is baby pig roast. Segovia is famous for their Cochinillo. It is popular because it is super tender. They say you can cut it with a plate. Why do you cut it with a plate? Why is cutting it with a plate a good way to measure if something is soft? I have no clue, but that's freaking soft.

We had some cochinillo in Madrid our first Sunday here, I had no idea what it was I just ate it. Grandpa got the tail, I got one of the feet.

Segovia was a very cool place to see.