August 12, 2013

Segovia, Spain. October, 2009


We arrived here early one morning on the fast train from Madrid. Long before the tourist buses poured into town, we had the place almost to ourselves. And one of the things we learned as we toured the palace where Columbus approached Ferdinand and Isabella with that crazy scheme of his: Segovia, situated as it is on a steep promontory overlooking the plains all about, was a natural place for a fortress. The early Roman settlers knew that the only necessity it lacked was water. Hence the construction this aqueduct from the Fuente Fría river 20 miles away. Solid and lasting, it’s undergone periodic reconstructions and is still in use today, some 2000 years later.

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