Segovia

When I was in about grade eight, we had a social studies text book and  on the cover was a picture of the aqueduct in Segovia. For some reason,  I always imagined it to be out in the country somewhere but the reality  is that it sits right inside and is part of the fabric of the city

It's fitting that we started our journey with Gehry and Gaudi and we are now here in Segovia with the Romans. Surely if these guys hadn't figured out that arch thing, it's unlikely that the others would have been able to achieve what they've done.  And both are equally spectacular.

We left Galicia at about 4 o'clock and had a lovely drive to Segovia out of the main heat of the day.  We arrived to our hotel about 5 minutes before the Spain / Germany Semi-Final of the World Cup so we headed straight to the bar for the first half.  Spirits were high and compared to the other places where we had watched previous matches (Galicia, Basque Country, Catalunya, who have their own national identities) there was considerably more favour for Spain.

We left at half time to go into town as we hadn't even seen the aqueduct at this point and we wanted to be in heart of the action.  We landed at a small bar which had a relatively tiny 36 inch flatscreen outside on the terrazza.  But the atmosphere was great and of course when Spain scored the crowd went mad.

Later, there were lots of celebrations in the streets and a dance festival, presumabably planned earlier and independently of the World Cup was going on at the foot of the aqueduct.

This was truly one of our most memorable days in Spain and sitting there in the moonlight watching this amazing performance in front of this incredible structure, it was hard not to think we were in a dream.

The next day we got up early and explored the town a bit and visited the 16th Century Gothic Cathedral. All the flying buttresses you could want!