La Catedral de Segovia...catwalk!

La Catedral de Segovia (from online)
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So yesterday I did probably one of the neatest things, and my favorite activity so far. Our history class is taught by a Spanish woman who works at the Cathedral of Segovia. The Catedral is the highest point of the city and it´s stunning. So as I said before we have been going to the cathedral for the last couple of days and looking and learning about the various parts.

Yesterday she told us to meet at 4pm at the Catedral. We all met up and she told us that would be climbing the torre (tower of the Catedral). Something that is closed to the public...no one is allowed to go up there and we were getting a very special tour! As our house mother says "Qué buena suerte" (what good luck). So this very stern man came out...his attitude reminded me of Dad when he shows of his theatre...that quiet proud thing. Anyway so he walks us to the back corner of the Catedral...now we have been here probably 3 times by now and so none of us could understand where he was going...well he unlocks a Capilla and walks to the back corner of it and there is this little bitty door...it´s hung slightly tilted and you have to push on it a little to get it to swing open...oh and the key is one of those huge old skeleton keys. So we look at him and he tells us to follow him...I thought he was kiding. But nope! We started up this spiral staircase...I mean very little spiral, stone, dusty staircase. After 308 stairs we reached the apartment area of where the bell ringer lived and would ring the bell everyday. It has an unbelievable view of the city...we then went all the way to the top and it opened up and we walked around and could see every inch of the city! There were bells hanging from the tower and it was just unbelievable. I couldn´t believe that we got to go up there and see it. It´s one of those things that I thought, wow I am getting to do something that few every have and that no tourists get to do. (Ah the beauty of being a student).

The tower we climbed!
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So what´s worse than going up? Going down. Walking down was somewhat of a nightmare! You just went around and around and around and around...it seemed to never end! One of the students asked if this was hell. I have to admit after a while you start to get crazy.

So we think the tour is over and he waves us over to another capilla...we looked inside...well there was nowhere else we could go...ah but there was. In the back corner was another similar doorway. He unlocked it the same way and then he pointed to the rafters of the catedral...we´re going up there? I thought. Yes. So we walk up another, slightly wider spiral staircase...I then decided the tiny was better cause you could hang on to the walls. And so we went up, up and up and then at the top was this lovely wood plank....hmmm. And then another little door. He opened the door and we could see only a burst of sunlight...we were on the roof. He walked us along the outer ledge of the catedral....we were on top of the cathedral!!! And it was unbelievable! It´s this stone ledge and a sort of stone railing all the way around and we got to walk out a ways and then he took us around and back in another door and we were back inside the catedral...this time on the catwalk (I don´t know what it is actually called) But we were up so high we could see all the stain glass windows that are on the ceiling. So we are all about to pass out from excitment and everyone else in the catedral is pointing at us and wanting to go up too. So he finally shuffles us back in the door and we go up more stairs!!!! This time we were at the very top of the catedral (inside) on the catwalk that goes all the way around the catedral. We were up so high that we could see the detail of the ceiling...and high enough that I didn´t want to look down!

Tower!
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It was amazing! And such an awesome opportunity! We were so glad that our profesor had taken us to see it. At the end all the people that work at the catedral and told us they had gifts for us to remeber the catedral by...and they gave us all 3 little replicas (nice, expensive) replicas of the stain glass windows and a stack of postcards that are sooo cool (and won´t be sent home lol, yeah scrapbook!). But they had put these little packages together for all of us! It was so nice and we couldn´t thank them enough!

Catwalk!
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It was such a neat experience! And this morning we met back at the Catedral and we went into another secret chamber and into the archives of the catedral. The main investigator showed us some amazing stuff...huge books dated back to 1600s, musica religiosa for the massive organs in the catedral and letters as well. Again we had an opportunity different from anything I will ever get to do again. We saw things that we would have never known existed...¿Qué buena suerte?

Vida, Amor, Viaje

I love spiral staircases
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ps...heading to Salamanca y Ávila mañana! Oh and Mom we gave Julia a tootsie roll! haha she loves dulces! Thanks for the happy!