Excursion to Madrid pt. III

From Toledo, we drove straight through Madrid to Segovia, a small medieval town in the mountains just outside of the capital. The main thing the school was concerned with us seeing here was the incredible Roman aqueduct, which is one of the most significant Roman remnants on the Iberian peninsula. And indeed, it was impressive. Too big to get into one picture, but a quick Google search will give you a good idea about the immensity of the structure.

Although the aqueduct is the most significant thing in Segovia from an historical and educational standpoint, what I was most looking forward to was the legendary restaurant right next to it, El Meson de Candido, and its specialty: roast suckling pig. The pigs are roasted whole, with some of the entrails removed (but not all-- I stumbled upon a kidney in my section). Traditionally, Candido himself comes out with the pigs arranged on platters, cuts them into sections using a dinner plate, makes a speech, and smashes the plate. The other room got to see this, but alas, I guess they were running low on plates that day and our room didn't get the pleasure. What we DID get, however, was one of the top five meals of my life.

Hunter, shown in the picture, and I ordered the suckling pig. My other two friends at the table ordered baby goat, which was also quite good. But you just can't beat roast baby pig. Crispy skin, tender, juicy meat. Paired with a good house wine and followed by the best dessert I've ever had (the "house special dessert", which I later found out is also know as a segoviano) and a fantastic cafe con leche, and there you have it. The atmosphere was great too. The inn (meson means inn in Spanish) has been around since the 1700's, and Candido, who ran it for sixty years before he died in the 1990's, became a legend of Segovia. He was officially recognized by the king as being "the greatest inn-keeper in all of Castilla-Leon", which is the autonomous community (like a state) in which the inn is located. We didn't realize it until towards the end when we got commemorative pamphlets that his son, also named Candido, had been our waiter the whole time! Naturally we went and asked him if we could get a picture with him. "A picture? No. Many pictures!" was his reply.

The purple sash he's wearing is an honor bestowed upon him by the king. Such a nice guy. If I ever come back to Segovia, Candido's will be my first stop. Because we spent so much time eating (true Spanish form), we barely had any time to check out Segovia's other major attraction: the Alcázar of Segovia, perhaps better known to Americans as the castle that inspired the Disney castle.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Exterior_Alcazar_Segovia.jpg

After jogging through the castle (great views of the surrounding countryside and cool sets of armor), we made it back to the bus just in time.

From Segovia, we finally went to Madrid, where we checked into our hotel. We had been given a list of possible things to see in Madrid, since there were no required group outings. Along with the list of sites to see, we got a list of restaurants we might be interested in. We decided to try one of them, El Rey de los Tallarines, or "Noodle King", that night. Some might criticize us for eating Chinese food in Madrid, but one has to remember that we'd been eating Spanish food for two and a half months at this point, and anyway this restaurant hand makes their noodles, which is something I wanted to see. Didn't disappoint. Plate of noodles for less than ten euro, can't beat it with a stick.

Y'all are probably sick of hearing about food, but I'm hungry at the moment and we had some fantastic food on this trip. The next morning, we headed to el Mercado de San Miguel, which some of you may remember from the post about my first day in Spain.

We snacked and bought some food for later in the day. Earlier when I said that all our time in Madrid was free, well, that was true as far as it went. But during our first full day in Madrid, we took an excursion to another town to see El Escorial, one of Spain's largest palaces, and a popular day trip from the capital.

The palace is much too large to get into one shot with my camera. Here's a distant view of the place I found on the internet to give you an idea of the size:

Despite its outer grandeur, however, the inside is really pretty austere as palaces go. In addition to serving as a royal residence, it is also the tomb of every Spanish monarch, save two, since the 1500's. The twenty-six marble tombs line the walls of a circular room inside the palace. Pictures were forbidden, but I managed to get a shot inside.

Bad picture, but there was a guide watching us and it was dark, and of course I couldn't use a flash. Impressive place, but I was really looking forward to getting back to exploring Madrid.

The next day was our only full day of free time in Madrid, as we were due to take the Ave (Spain's high-speed train) to Sevilla the next morning. So, we started bright and early with the Palacio Real, Spain's answer to Buckingham Palace.