Zamora - Castles, storks and finding our way without a map!
What can I say about this fascinating little town (well city really). Mandy, Rebecca and I decided to go to Zamora as it was only about an hour on the bus from Salamanca. We had hoped to join an excursion to Toledo, but it was cancelled. Instead, we went to Zamora and had a fantastic, though tiring day. We got to play detective, saw the sights, walked our feet off, goofed around on the bridge and eventually found not one, but two ice cream shops. And all this without a map!.
When we got to Zamora, we expected to find the tourist information or a booth that sold maps fairly quickly. After several stops at different shops and asking people, we were informed there was no tourist office and no they only had road maps, not tourist maps. Not wanting to spend lots of money on large, heavy and basically unnecessary maps, we asked for directions to the castle and made our own way through to the older part of the town. We visited churches, stork nests, bridges, and at last the Castle. After that, we made our way back towards the bus station only to find a souvenir shop that had a tourist map! Well, we took it anyway to see what we might have missed then decided to visit the Plaza del Toros which turned out to the be local bull ring (not open) so we found another old church (not open) and went in search of ice cream (or maybe we did the ice cream search first?). Either way, it took some detecting - lots of people were eating them, but we couldn't find a store. We knew they were close as nobody's ice creams had melted. Finally, success. Very happy with our selections, then found another ice cream shop!! Oh well, second one looked better and busier but we'd already had our fill.
Zamora is also well known for it's Semana Santa Parades as well.
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| Statues of Penitents during Semana Santa celebrations |
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| View of the old town from the Bridge |
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| Arches, Doorways and more at the Castillo |
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| Further statue for Semana Santa |
Segovia - Aqueduct and more
The enduring symbol of Segovia would have to be either the Aqueduct, built by the Romans and still standing or the Alcazar which apparently inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Very wonderful town, great food (famous for cochinillo - roast suckling pig) and lots of history. Worth seeing multiple times. Snow capped mountains in the distance, the Aqueduct stretching for a long way, the Moorish presence of the Alcazar, Romans, Moors, Christians and modern tourists all enjoying the wonderful sights, tastes and sounds of the ancient city. What more could a person want?
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| Segovia Cathedral rising high above the town |
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| The Alcazar, Segovia |
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| View from the Alcazar |
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| Roman Aqueduct, Segovia |
Hello Frances, I was trying to work out why the Alcazar was up near Madrid as we had seen it in Seville until I looked the meaning up- Fortress. Guess there are a few around!! Worth seeing the Seville Alcazar if you are down that way. Seville was over 45C when there and hotter than Morocco. Probably getting hot where you are- mind you you did show us some snow not long ago.
ReplyDeleteWe also liked the Spanish architecture and local dress.
Not long and your walk will start