My Birthday in Segovia

For my birthday this year, Wes found someone to watch the kids for a weekend (which is a really huge task here!!) and took me away to "fairy tale land" in Segovia, Spain.  We left Cáceres as soon as we dropped the kids off at school.  We were heading into the mountains into a small tiny town in the middle of no-where, so we decided to stop off in Madrid on our way and get our "American fill."  We stopped at "Taste of America" and bought root beer, Dr. Pepper, brownies and peanutbutter chips. ;)  Then we headed to TGI Fridays.  Wow... I had no idea how much I've missed American salads.  Here, they are pretty much iceburg lettuce with tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.  I think, as Americans, we can make any meal into a salad... :)  I've missed them!  We both got sodas (with free refills!!!!... unheard of around here!) and brownie Sundays (also unheard of in Cáceres.)  Mmmmm... it was so much junk, but I was happy. ;)

We live 3 hours away from Madrid, and we don't get to go very often.  We decided to take advantage of our "no kids" status, and we stopped at IKEA.  Yes, NOT my favorite place, but it was definitely less stressful this time.  We had planned this visit, and I had a list printed out of what we wanted, so we did all that shopping, and filled the back of our van with all of Wes' office furniture. :)  "Real" furniture here is crazy expensive, so our whole house if full of IKEA.  :)

After we finished up at IKEA, we headed out for Segovia.  I've been promising pictures for a while, so here they are...

We stayed in a 15th century palace... it was an amazing mix of "rustic" and elegance. 

You can't really see from here, but these arches out on the balcony were SO distinct that when we were looking out over the city, we could look out and find our ROOM!

These are ancient Roman aqueducts that were still in use until a couple year ago!

Wes was having fun with his camera...

This is the castle in Segovia!... the inspiration for Walt Disney's castle for the Magic Kingdom. :)

The cathedral

This was a fire pit that was in the center of a "salon"in the palace.  It was SOOO cold in Segovia; we loved walking in and getting warm by the fire.

 We had so much fun, just enjoying each other.  We went to a million different little cafés and found a little ice cream shop... it was so relaxing and fun. :) On our way out of town, we went back through Madrid, and this time stopped at a mall... since we don't have one in Cáceres (at least one like this...)  You can't see it in this picture, but we are sitting outside of Starbucks. :) Happy day!