Madrid Day Trips: Segovia, Cuenca, Alcalá

Segovia

Ben and I have both visited Segovia before, so I thought I’d start out with some throwback pictures.

Little missionary Ben + Elder Scott at the Segovia Cathedral, 2009.

Study-abroad Nat + roomie Carson, 2011.

Ben + Nat, 2014.

The first thing we did was find some food. And food we did find. Segovia is known for its cochinillo, or suckling pig, and they have them in pretty much every restaurant in town in plain sight for everyone to see (see below). We picked a great restaurant with a beautiful view and enjoyed our 2-o’clock-meal Spanish style—taking our time.

Ben’s favorite activity at restaurants with crystal glasses.

Mom’s piece of cuchinillo. It was delicious, skin and all.

I took this picture on my study abroad, but here’s what the whole baby pig looks like. So sad. . . . Yet so delicious.

We also ordered some Tarta de Ponche Segoviano, a delicious layered cake from Segovia.

Next we made our way to the Alcázar, Segovia’s beautiful stone fortress-turned-castle that was supposedly one of Walt Disney’s inspirations for his Cinderella castle at Disney World.

But to get the best view of the castle, as Ben and I both knew, you had to take a hike down and around the side of the castle. Along the way, we stopped at a small church, Iglesia de la Vera Cruz. According to Ben, according to someone who told him on his mission, some saints were buried outside of the church. Later, their bodies were removed and destroyed by protestors of some sort, but the holes where they were buried are still there. (That part I do know is true, according to my eyeballs.)

Checkin’ out the holes.

Saint Cindy.

Zombie Cindy.

This was the only time on our whole trip we used our little bendy tripod; but it came in handy here.

And for funsies, some more throwbacks. I hope we both look better now than we did then.

Such a coolz dude.

To finish off the day, we explored some caves, hiked back up to town, and saw the aqueducts.

Pure magic.

It was a little warm out, I guess.

Cuenca

Cuenca is one of my favorite cities in Spain. In fact, when I worked for BYU Magazine and got to write an article about Madrid, I made sure Cuenca made it in there, too. Cuenca is a special place for Ben, too, because he served here for six months of his mission. Cuenca is famous for its casas colgadas, or hanging houses, but really, the whole city is so beautiful and picturesque—hence, few words and mostly pictures of not-humans.

I distinctly remember this guy from my study abroad. In fact, I found a video clip I snatched of him playing in 2011 (and other embarrassing tidbits, so just disregard everything else, ha).

Waving hello from the bridge.

Las casas colgadas, hombres y caballeros.

We went to visit the branch in Cuenca, and by some miracle, someone was there cleaning the church, so we got to go inside. It happened to be Henry, a member of the branch that knew and remembered Ben, so it was fun to hear him talk about Ben and his time as a missionary in Cuenca.

His picture is even still on the little ward bulletin board.

Catching up in the chapel.

Henry was one of the nicest, happiest people I’ve met.

Alcalá de Henares

This one’s short because our visit was short—we just stopped here on our way to the airport. Alcalá is where Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) was born and where I lived during my six-week study abroad, so it was fun to show Ben some of my favorite spots even though it was media día and everything was closed.