Stunning Segovia and onto Toledo

The following morning we're up before the birds (though as its not getting light now until about 8am its not hard!) and out onto the city motorways to Segovia, and hundred or km's north of Madrid. Given its still dark we're surprised to find the motorways alive with traffic; we thought Madridian's were late starters!

It doesn't take long for us to motor our way up to Segovia where we were planning to spend the night. But we can't find the campsite! We find cheap parking instead so change the plan and park up just outside the historic centre. The famed aqueduct cuts across the street and through the city in front of us. It's massive and we're massively impressed. We walk up into the old town which has a great main street and intriguing narrow and windy alleyways leading off, begging to be explored. There are some very pretty churches along the way, but when we step out into the main square we are staring across at the main cathedral which is a beautiful, almost palatial jumble of spires and roofs. Unsurprisingly the centre of Segovia is a UNESCO site.

We carry on through the narrow streets and end up at the end of town in front of the castle. There are policemen everywhere. The place is crawling with them. Something seems to be going down here and no one is allowed into the grounds of the castle. Eventually we're allowed in, subjected to a bag and person search and walk up to the castle entrance only to be told its shut today. We mooch about the gardens for a bit, whilst more police and dogs arrive and head into the castle. It all seems to scream trouble, my gut feeling is maybe they've had a bomb scare and clearly we're not going to get in today so we head back through town to Betty.

We jump in Betty and head back down the road, past Madrid to Toledo. We've struggled to find somewhere to stay in Toledo, but Ruth reckons she knows of a campground right in town. True enough she does and its pretty nice. We park up, have a late lunch (which is becoming a bit of a habit!) and catch the bus into town.

The old town looks pretty nice from a distance, but up close is a little disappointing aside the old and beautiful bridge that links the new and old town. We wander for a bit, try and find an English newspaper and fail. We come across a couple of bakeries with replicas of the castle, made entirely from mascarpone; in fact mascarpone seems to be the town's big thing food-wise. So we get some from one of the bakeries and its not bad. The other big thing in town is knives. We head into one sword making place, turns out they made the swords for Lord of the Rings. We take our leave and head down to the river before walking around the old town and back to camp.