Madrid A-Z

"If words were edible, Provencal speech would be a rich, thick, pungent verbal stew, simmered in an accent filled with twanging consonants; a civet, perhaps, or maybe a daub." – Peter Mayle, from Provence A-Z










A. Alcadesas di Zamarramala

The travel writer who has yet to visit the location that he is about to write about has to pull a few tricks out of his sleeve, so to speak. In his own wonderful dedication to the place he lived for much of the second half of his life, Provence A-Z by Peter Mayle (of Year in Provence recognition), wrote about his adopted and beloved new geography with plenty of experience. Oh, well, maybe some day that could be my own case; but more likely, as with any traveler who sees travel in near jackpot circumstances (visit Spain once!), we are left to learn about the country through guidebooks, histories, and Wikipedia. I feel that is a better start than not trying at all.

For my letter 'A,' I was first attracted to the wonderful phrase Alcadesas di Zamarramala, associated with Segovia, a day trip that we already have planned for our own trip, located only a couple of hours north of Madrid. This particular festival takes place in February – its official name is 'around first sun,' and the description says that "For a day village women boss their men around.' Quite an abrupt description really, but one that I am sure all men would love dearly to visit and participate if they

happened to be traveling the middle of Spain in deep winter. The city of Segovia however, is certainly not seemingly quite so simple to pin down, as it reads that it is a truly major architectural wonder, offering the Alcazar castle, described as fairy-tale castle rising above the cliff at Segovia, and one that has inspired the very castle we have all seen in Cindarella. It is proposed that the original castle had been constructed in the middle ages and rebuilt in 1862 after fire. From its top one can see "the breathtaking views of Segovia and the Guadarrama mountains."

With so many 'A' options built right into this small medieval town, it is not hard to know which to pick next, one of the grandest of all architecture in all of Spain, the great Aqueduct, one of two of the greatest preserved aqueducts in Europe, a testament to Vitruvius's well preserved treatise on the principles of architecture from the very end of BC. It is really quite a sit to see such a construction that has survived at that height from 100 AD and to consider the kind of thought and work that would have been put into the ancient dilemma of water transportation, this set filled by the River Frio into the city. With the fortress walls around the perimeter, the castles firmly ensconced onto cliffside, and a large structure used for the convenience of water, I suspect that Segovia has been thought of since the beginning of recorded history as sort of hidden gem of location and beauty, residing, as it does well above the pulsing metropolis of Madrid.