Vip Trip Madrid: Day two

After having a wonderful night's sleep and a good breakfast. We set course towards to the Tiflologico museum. A museum created for the blind by ONCE, the blind organisation in Spain. This museum is completely free and beyond our expectations. Not only do they display the world's most iconic buildings, like the Taj Mahal, the Sagrada familia, the Eiffel tower, The Colosseum and so many more, they also display important buildings and cities in Spain. Very handy for us, as there are multiple buildings that we will visit in person in the next upcoming days. But that’s not all! Another part of the museum is dedicated towards Spanish Visually impaired artists and the basement tells us the story of the evolution of braille writing and devices.What a journey! We leave the museum in Awe and head across the street to our lunch spot. Yes, we are hungry again! It seems that Mike and I both possess a healthy appetite and a love for good (traditional) food and coffee. Funny sidenote: the coffee here is always espresso, so if you are a Large Americano drinker, good luck. The coffees here are small, strong and o so good. We only saw one occasion that they were selling an Americano and they described it as, Large black weak coffee. Time to start our road trip! Our first stop is Segovia. the city is famous for its historic buildings including three main landmarks: its midtown Roman aqueduct, its cathedral (one of the last ones to be built in Europe following a Gothic style), and the medieval castle, which served as one of the templates for Walt Disney's Cinderella Castle. We are staying close to the city centre in an old Monastery. The building is beautifully renovated into a 4* hotel. Once we arrive we are eager to discover the city. By foot is by far the nicest way to discover this medieval town, however, it being located on top of a hill insures that we will get our cardio for today. Segovia is so different to Madrid, the vibes are so much more chill. We feel the small city pace and stroll into the smallest little streets. The streets are so narrow that no car could ever pass here. While describing the buildings and testing the meta glasses even further (So far, very impressed) we soon get ushered in by a local. A little hesitant, we enter the door that he is holding open for us. What an experience, we get to discover what lays behind these small houses and wooden doors. It is not what you would expect, there is a full square courtyard behind those walls. The beautiful architecture with the combination of wood and limestone, creating an archgalley for us to walk in. We find this building style all over our journey. Clearly people wanted to be protected from the elements when going from one room to the other. Having those square, outdoor hallways is not only aesthetically pleasing, we love walking through them. The aqueduct is clearly what Segovia in known for, I dominates the city and seems to be the local meeting spot. As we walk further up we discover the Plaza Mayor of Segovia with their Cathedral. The Cathedral is the highest point of the city, we made it! From here on, the only way is down the hill. We are secretly a little happy with the coolerm grey weather and Imagine how though this would be on a hot summer day.While walking all the way through this old town, completed with lots of pedestrian streets, we make it to the end of the city where the Castle is located. The Castle is gorgeous. It combines elements of Gothic and Islamic styles in a unique and striking structure. We don’t visit the castles interior, but we enjoy the small, non-touristy streets all over the city. It is just fun to hobble on the cobblestones, feel the wooden doors and get a grasp of how narrow these streets are. While we are trying to get some photos as a local man approaches us.Segovia is located next to the mountains, these mountains are visible from the city centre and as I am shooting a photo, this soft spoken local man shares some legends with us. He speaks only Spanish, but slowly and patiently, wanting us to understand what he is explaining. The mountains in the distance hold a legend. The mountain is called “La mujer muerta”. Translated to English means “the dead woman” and is a sub range of the Guadarrama Mountains which take the shape of a reclining woman. The legend says that two brothers were struggling for power. Their mother, who wanted to avoid the fight between her sons, offered her life to the gods in return for peace. After a big storm the mother’s body appeared as a great mountain.Hungry, but happy we make way to our hotel. Ready to give those hard working legs a rest and heading for an early diner. At least that was our plan. We soon learned that Spaniards live at a different pace. Forget about finding a restaurant that will feed you before 8pm here. Yes, 8pm. I know! As we sit down in the restaurant, (which is a part of the monastery as well) at said time, we are all alone… The food is good, the waiters are so kind and it feels so private and warm, like sitting in your living room. Only after 830 the restaurant start filling up with people. Because Spanish people live at a different pace as us… This is exactly what we meant with indulging in Spanish culture. In the coming days, we decide to eat lunch at lunchtime, coffee and snack in the afternoon and dinner after 8pm. Living like a local it is.