9 November 2023
Today we went for a walk outside of the city. It felt so good to be walking again, and at one stage, admittedly not for long, we were on the Camino Madrid which goes to Sahagún. We both wished we could keep on walking.
We left the city through a gate on the south side of the city wall and walked west eventually walking back into the city through Puerta de San Cebrián on the northern side.
The walk took us to the Santuario de Nuestra Senñora de la Fuencisla, the Convento de San Juan de la Cruz - St John of the Cross - which has his tomb in a small side chapel, the Iglesia de la Vera Cruz, and the Monasterio de Santa Maria del Parral.
Most the the walk was on tree-lined paths, alongside small rivers, and gave views to the city, Alcázar and the Cathedral every so often. It was a pretty walk - but would have been even prettier if the sun had managed to break through the cloud cover.
We also revisited the aqueduct and walked to the far end of it on the south-east side of the city. It was an amazing piece of Roman engineering. Each block was cut to precision, and placed together without any mortar or other materials to keep the blocks in place. Each block weighed up to two tons.
Close up its possible to see grooves in the blocks which were made when they were being dragged into place. Also visible are dimple-like indentations where some sort of gripping tool must have been used.
According to Wikipedia: Its elevated section, with its complete arcade of 167 arches, is one of the best-preserved Roman aqueduct bridges and the foremost symbol of Segovia, as evidenced by its presence on the city's coat of arms. It's almost 17 kilometres long and is 28.1 metres at its highest.
