Day trip to Avila and Segovia

"K2T Wisata"

The city of Madrid is great – meaning both nice to see and big in size – and, therefore, it has a lot to offer. It is advised to always include it as part of your itinerary when you take a trip to Spain. But, if you have been touring Madrid for a few days, once you have seen the main sights and architectural heritage, eaten all the typical meals of Spanish cuisine, enjoyed the cosmopolitan but at the same time laidback atmosphere of this city and done some good shopping in the big stores, you may feel like spending some time in a smaller city or a nearby town.

Especially at this time of the year, when the smaller crowds allow for a faster and more enjoyable sightseeing, you might desire –and have the time also- to see what the region is like.

Madrid lies in the autonomous community of the same name, which only has one province. Guess what the province is called? Did you say Madrid? Of course, good guess! It limits to its northwest with the autonomous community of Castilla y León, where there are many small towns worth visiting.

We are currently offering a day trip to two towns in the Castilla y León region: Avila and Segovia, as a chance for you to soak up the sensational history of Spain.

Our tour to Avila and Segovia meets 9.45 in central Madrid, where we will board an air-conditioned coach bus. Our friendly, informative and professional guide will then start his narration as the bus gest on its way to Avila. We will stop at the Los Cuatro Postes hilltop to admire panoramic views of the city of Avila and its complete intact medieval walls from the outside, with 90 Romanesque towers from the 11th century.

>> BOOK YOUR TOUR TO AVILA AND SEGOVIA

Avila is the capital of Castilla and León, its old town is UNESCO’s world heritage and the city is also the birthplace of Saint Teresa of Jesus (1515-82) – a mystic writer. Avila is 115 kilometers away from Madrid and reachable in one and a half hours. Almost 60.000 people live in this small city of Spain, which has the highest number of churches per inhabitant and is an important pilgrimage site. We will visit Basilica San Vicente and Avila’s cathedral.

From there we will head to Segovia, a city that is the capital of the homonymous province. It is 87 kilometers north from Madrid and 67 kilometers northeast from Avila. Its old city and its roman Aqueduct –one of the main sights- were declared UNESCO’s world heritage in 1985.

We will start by visiting the aqueduct. With 16 kilometers of extension and 118 arches, this monument is the best of the Roman era in the Iberian Peninsula, built in the time of Augustus. Only part of its length remains visible nowadays, but we will learn all about it. Then we will visit the Alcazar, which is an 11th century medieval fort that inspired the design of Disney World’s castle. Our guide will help us go back in time and imagine the heroic knights fighting in the medieval tournaments held there.

We will then visit the Artillery Museum and the Church of Vera Cruz. After having seen the best of a tour in Segovia, we will return to our meeting point in central Madrid.

The total time of the trip is approximately 9 hours. All admission fees are included, as well as transportation costs, the guide, driver and narrated tour. Hotel pick up and drop off services are not included but, upon request, we can help you find appropriate transportation services to and from your hotel in Madrid, if you need them.

As for food and drinks, there is an option to upgrade your day tour to Avila and Segovia by including a tourist-style lunch or a superb gastronomic Lunch with all Segovian specialties, making your trip a feast for all senses.

The Tourist Lunch is composed of a first dish of La Granja white beans, followed by a main dish of beef cooked ‘Segovian style’ and a choice for dessert. In the Gastronomic Lunch the La Granja white beans are followed by roasted baby pig and a Segovian cake for dessert. This latter one includes drinks as well: mineral water, wine and coffee.

Please bear in mind the cathedral of Avila is often not open to the public for special events. When that happens, we give a choice to visit other landmarks of the city.

Our Day Tour to Avila and Segovia can be booked year round for the weekend, or on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It will not be offered on Christmas Day or New Year’s.

Already planning your visits to the surroundings of Madrid? Book your trip to Avila and Segovia today and get ready! Looking forward to see you there!

>> BOOK YOUR TOUR TO AVILA AND SEGOVIA

Winter tourism in Madrid

Barcelo Market

"K2T Wisata"

The vision for the Barcelo Market and its environment is in fact the sum of various different innovations: an urban complex featuring elements of differing scale and function which are required to transform quite remarkably a densely inhabited and central zone of Madrid. The Temporary Market has been conceived as a recyclable complex which, despite its provisional nature, is able to prompt a new perception of its urban surroundings. Situated in Plaza del Arquitecto Ribera, on top of an underground car park, the idea of the project evokes traditional markets in public squares consisting in self-contained structures on a single level which can be used in a variety of different ways. Given the need of hosting the many stalls of the former market, the complex is made of six pentagonal constructions, of different heights and sizes, thus avoiding excessive volume with respect to the surrounding buildings.

Hemeroscopium house, Las Rozas,

"K2T Wisata"

For the Greek, Hemeroscopium is the place where the sun sets. An allusion to a place that exists only in our mind, in our senses, that is ever-changing and mutable, but is nonetheless real. It is delimited by the references of the horizon, by the physical limits, defined by light, and it happens in time. Hemeroscopium house traps near Madrid, a domestic space, and a distant horizon. And it does so playing a game with structures placed in an apparently unstable balance, that enclose the living spaces allowing the vision to escape. With heavy structures and big actions, disposed in a way to provoke gravity to move the space. And this way it defines the place.

The order in which these structures are piled up generates a helix that sets out from a straight support, the mother beam, also develops upwards fix a sequence of elements that turn out lighter seeing the structure grows, second on a mark that culminates the system of equilibrium. Seven elements in total. The design of their joints cope to their constructive nature, to their forces; and their stresses explicate the structural condition they believe. By the access this framework is set, the house becomes aerial, light, transparent, and the space kept inside flows curtain life. The simple simplicity of the structure’s joints requires pressure fact the development of complex calculations, good to the reinforcement, further the prestress and post-tension of the enliven rods that sew the web of the beams.