Holiday Adventures Part 1—Bordeaux and Segovia

We just returned from 18 fun days of travelling over the holidays. We told everyone we were going to Spain, but actually we visited six different countries that spoke six different languages! It will probably take several blog entries to cover it all. We put a lot of miles on our trusty car (a green Skoda Octavia) as we covered the entire Iberian Peninsula. A long car-ride for vacation is a very American phenomenon, and our Dutch friends thought we were nuts to drive so much. (Most Dutch people sit on the beach in France for a month in the summer for their vacation.)

We started out on Saturday, December 20 by driving to Bordeaux, France. Of course this is a grape-growing region, famous for its wine. We’re not wine drinkers, but on Sunday morning we enjoyed a beautiful view of town from a cathedral tower:
And an antique market where you could buy any kind of junk imaginable:
There was a beautiful cathedral in town that we visited after the morning mass. A tenor was practicing “O Holy Night” (in French) with the organ, in preparation for the upcoming Christmas Eve service. His voice filled the whole cathedral, and it was lovely.
Then we hit the road again and drove to Segovia, Spain. Segovia is an ancient town that has a huge aqueduct from Roman times:
Spain was controlled by the Moors for many years, so in Segovia we got to see our first Alcazar (a Moorish palace). It seemed like most cities in Spain had an Alcazar.
There was a fine view off the top of the Alcazar tower:
And, like most cities in Spain, there was a beautiful cathedral.
I enjoyed speaking in Spanish. It’s been a while since my high school Spanish classes, but I still remembered enough to get by.

Then, we got back in the car….