Segovia’s aqueduct bridge is one of the most well-preserved Roman elevated aqueducts and was a must-see while we were in Spain. Fortunately, it’s on the way from Madrid to Lafuente.
Very early start to the day, with a walk to the bus station.Heading for our airport bus!Cuddles and a nap on the way to Seville’s airport.And then it’s waiting time.Filled with lots of play.Watching for plane action.Goodbye Seville, we’re flying to Madrid where we’ll pick up our rental car for the drive through Segovia to Lafuente. Somewhat blurry, but this is probably the Solúcar solar farm, which is 20 miles west of Seville. Over 1,800 mirrors are pointed to concentrate the sunlight on the concrete tower, which heats the water in the tower to make steam. The steam is forced through pipes to make electricity. (Lara explained how all this worked to us since she did a project about it at school.)First look at our car for the next 4 weeks. This was also the largest parking spot we saw through our travels! Onwards to Segovia.Segovia’s city walls – these are on the north side and the road goes through the San Cebrian Gate. The wall is thought to have been built in medieval times to protect the city from the Moors. Spot Neil’s head!The wall runs about 3.5km around the city, with an average height of 9m and about 2.5m thick.It’s built of granite blocks and reused gravestones from an old Roman necropolis. Felix is hiding in there too!The wall has 8 towers, 5 gates, and a number of doors. Segovia’s Aqueduct was built in the 1st century AD and is still in use today to deliver drinking water from the Frío River to the city of Segovia, a distance of 16km. It has 165 arches that are more than 9m high. This is the only aboveground portion, which is 728m long and crosses a 30m deep valley. Most of the aqueduct is buried.It’s built using about 24,000 granite blocks without mortar!Its source is at 1255m. Along its run, the engineers had to adjust for a 75m descent over 553m. Alcazar of Segovia, supposedly the inspiration of Cinderella’s castle in the Disney film.The Segovia Cathedral was the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain.It was a short stop at Segovia as we still have another 4 hrs of driving to Lafuente.Typical view of road tunnels during our drive.3.6 km
