Day 4-5: Cerralbo, Segovia, and San Lorenzo

Apologies for the lack in blog post yesterday. The lack of internet and overnight trains will do that to you! So in order to not get too behind, I am going to combine Days 4 and 5. But don't worry, it won't be too long because we didn't do anything too terribly exciting over those two days :)

On Day 4 we went to visit the Museo del Cerralbo. It's a Marquis's home and boy did he collect a lot of stuff! Needless to say he was very rich and used that money to buy antiquities which I enjoyed seeing. He had stuff from the time of the ancient egyptians to the times of Christ to the 1900s. Fascinating stuff I tell you!

The grand staircase, the formal ballroom, and a study

Ancient antiquities: Egyptian head from 1st millenium BC, Samurai!, Roman sculpture from 2nd century AD

After that we took a train to Segovia, a little town 30 minutes from Madrid. It's known for the Roman Aqueduct and it's Alcazar. We started off grand by getting lost and going the wrong direction but it was totally so we could climb those 92 stairs and get a workout. After that we beelined it for the Alcazar and took the tour. It had some great views of the town and a really cool/creepy moat way far below. We also had time for the Cathedral so we took a pit stop and did a little look around. Then it was time to get back to Madrid have some dinner!

Atop to Alcazar looking into the town of Segovia, the facade of the Alcazer

The great cathedral and the Aqueduct!

The next day we slept in a bit and went to El Escorial where the Monastery of San Lorenzo is located. And it is HUGE. Seriously, very large. And even after visiting it is unclear to us whether it's actually a holy place or a summer palace for the royals. Maybe it was both? But I digress, the most interesting part was definitely the crypt the kings and queens of Spain were buried. We took the stairs down under the cellar not knowing what we were about to see only to stumble into a marvelous room of marble and gold with the names of the rulers on caskets.

After San Lorenzo we headed back to the apartment to pack up and get ready for our overnight train to Lisbon. We had some free time so I thought about shopping but didn't end up going, my Mom would be so proud! So we cleaned up, packed up and headed to the train station!

Next stop Lisbon! (and I promise, since I'm posting this after our first day in Portugal, there will be TONS of pictures for the next post!)

And here are some of the other photos from Day 4 and 5:

Museo Cerralbo

Segovia--the Alcazar

Segovia--the Cathedral

Apologies for the lack of captions in this one, perhaps I'll come back and add them!