Friday, June 21st

We headed to Segovia Friday morning pulling the kids out of school on their fun water day.  They were told to wear their swimsuits to school, not sure if that would ever happen in Utah.

Navacerrada

We chose to go through the mountains to get there because it is a lot prettier even though it takes a little longer.

The trees were endless as you can see.

 Segovia´s Alcazar

This is our second time here, but we didn´t get pictures from down below the Alcazar last time so here they are.  That is the back of my aunt Merrelee, isn´t she cute?



The Alcazar with part of the city in the background.  We had to hike up a mountain across the valley to get this shot so the kids were exhausted.



This time we climbed the 162 steps (according to Morgan) to the top of  the castle´s tower.



and it was well worth it for this view of the city.

Coca Castle

The Coca Castle was built in 1453 by Spanish Christians, just as the Spanish reconquista was ending, and it is often described as being in the 'gothic-mudéjar' style.  The over-ornate, octagonal turrets and towers suggest that Coca was built more for show than it was for defense.

This was a shot of the castle from the old city walls which can also be seen in this picture.

If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see that the arrow holes in the turrets are in the shape of a Christian cross which are on many castles here and is a good sign it was built by Christians or for Christians.   This moat was very deep.

This way down to the lower quarters,  which was just full of garbage, spider webs and cute girls.




Kamree up on the outer walls sporting the treat bag.




The corner of the outer walls.



 

We really loved this castle and we were about the only ones here, besides the bird keeping watch from above.  As we were leaving; however, a few tour buses showed up.



Finally a castle that is safe to climb.   This was a castle across the parking lot from Coca, maybe the two castles gave battle to each other back in the day.



  The Castle of La Mota  The construction of this medieval castle of La Mota was built in the 15th centruy on Moorish remains from the 12h century by Arabs for the Catholics in Medina del Campo near Valladolid.

We "tawt we taw a puddy tat" and after zooming in it appears we did.




The inner courtyard.

 

Casa El Agapio

 We stayed in this 300 year old house in a little pueblo outside of Valladolid.  It was really cute with some modern updates.  This town felt like a ghost town until we went to bed.   The downstairs housed a restaurant which apparently is a happening place in the middle of the night with live music.   This balcony connected the boys room to the girls and it was just above the outside patio of the restaurant.  This was just around the corner from the Bed and Breakfast, not sure what it was, but we found it quite interesting. 

 Off to Zaragoza