Today was our first excursion as a group - "la ruta de los castillos," or the route of the castles in English.
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| Since I haven't posted a picture of me so far... |
The first castle that we went to was Coca. It was built in the fifteenth century and sits on the ancient Roman birthplace of the Roman emperor Teodosio the Great.
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| Coca |
The castle is actually closed to the public in January, but the director of our program got permission for us to go and to have a guide - we had the entire castle to ourselves! There is a large entryway when you first walk in and you are easily able to go up in the towers and see the view. It got a little more difficult once we got into the castle.
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| The dreaded never-ending spiral staircase. |
After successfully not falling, there are several rooms that branch off from the stairs that we saw. We went to the church and a few of the other rooms that were used for various miscellaneous purposes before making our way to the top rooms and the top. The castle was actually partially destroyed during the Napoleonic Era, but was restored in the 1950's. Throughout the inner castle there are parts of the original castle paired with the reconstruction.
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| A Piece of the Original Wall |
In contrast, the next castle that we visited was original construction and much older. Built in the twelfth century, the Castillo de Cuellar is now used as a high school. Unfortunately it was closed and we couldn't go inside, but we got to walk around the outside and inner areas that were open. It's interesting to be able to see the changes in architecture alone over three hundred years.
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| El Castillo de Cuellar |
Hopefully the weather starts to warm up a little more here, although I suppose I can't complain too much about 30 degree weather!
