Segovia with Kids
The train to Segovia only takes 30 minutes. Instead, we opted for a long, drawn-out car rental ordeal with a little known and never to be rented from again company, so it took us around 3 and a half hours to reach Segovia from Madrid. This wasn’t truly ALL the fault of the car rental company. Using Google Maps in Spain has been an adventure of continually rerouting and minutes added to arrival times. It makes me miss paper maps.
We stayed in an apartment within the Old Town of Segovia that we found on Booking.com. It was sort of a one-bedroom studio, with a curtain dividing the bedroom from the living room where the kids slept. As a family who normally sleeps in a barn with only one fully private room (the kids’ room), we are pretty flexible with lodging.
Old walled cities are fantastic- beautiful, typically/mostly closed to cars, historic, colorful. Segovia did not disappoint. The blogs all account for a morning or POSSIBLY a day in Segovia. We stayed three and could have stayed two more.
We ate our first meal in Segovia at 10pm at Restaurante Aqueducto 25, outside, amongst many locals and just a few tourists, while the kids ran up and down the cobblestone streets closed off to cars. They entertained themselves imagining that a spooky witch truly lived behind a ripped curtain in the bell tower of the church nearby. Fantastic. We walked to the old Roman aqueduct that is a main attraction of the town shortly before midnight. It was awesome to see it at night in cool air, romantically lit (see what I did there? Roman, romantically. ChatGTP could not do that), and with just a few people around.
Walking through the Jewish Quarter really struck me. It’s a beautiful part of the city with bittersweet history. The original synagogue building stands- it was seized by the Catholics in the 1400s and is still a Corpus Christi. I couldn’t help thinking of a historical fiction book I read a few years ago called The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish (highly recommend) about Jewish women across centuries in Europe, including vivid stories about the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. We inhabit houses and spaces for such short amounts of time in the scheme of things.
Another historic delight of Segovia, is the old wall surrounding the city and the castle. Delamon and I discovered that lovely shaded trails follow the wall and make for great scenic runs. With the kids, we walked all through the old town. I couldn’t imagine rushing through it in a morning.
The highlight of Segovia for the kids was the castle itself, El Alcázar—with the exception of our youngest, who was most impressed by her time with her imaginary friend, Olly. We got tickets for the castle and the climb to the tower at the ticket counter, and had an hour to wait until our entrance time. I set the kids up with their watercolors and notebooks right outside the castle. My white outfit remained white if you can believe it, even despite one of the kids having a nosebleed.
We brought just a few things to occupy kids during our summer months. Watercolor supplies, math books, a few chapter books, a travel chess/checkers set, blank paper to draw, colored pencils, and two decks of cards. They also each chose a stuffy.
One afternoon, we drove out to Palacio Real de La Granja de San Ildefonso, the summer residence of the kings of Spain from 1721 to the 1880s. The palace rooms stretch on and on, filled with tapestries, paintings, sculptures, chandeliers, marble, beautiful walnut doors and flooring, a gigantic clock, and to my delight a small painting by Artemisia Gentileschi! The garden outside gave the kids another chance to draw and paint the building (or the color black), which occupied at least an hour and provided a bit of down time for everyone.
Other dining recs:
Patio de la Nonna - delicious thin crust pizza, small local vibe, requires reservations, and our first taste of liquor de hierbas.
Casa Comala - incredible food, 5.0 for excellence of taste, presentation, kindness and welcome of staff, and localness.
Jose Maria - they are a well-oiled cochinillo machine with a deft hand at providing the meal and experience.
Pasapan - creative flavor combinations like whipped cod and shrimp and beet salad. Very fancy spot at an incredible value.
