Alexandra Goodin, ’25, is a Psychology major and Spanish minor studying at Nebrija University in Madrid, Spain this Fall 2023.
One of the cool parts about studying specifically in Madrid is that it is pretty centrally located in Spain. This means that it is relatively easy to get to different parts of the country for a weekend; I for example, spend a weekend in Valencia (eastern Spain) earlier this fall, have friends who went to northern Spain, and am doing a trip around southern Spain next week. But if you don’t have the time, money, or energy to do full weekend trips, there are also plenty of great places in Spain you can go to just for the day from Madrid. Here are three that I have done!
Toledo
The city of Toledo is located southwest of Madrid, and is easily accessible by bus or train. My friend and I took advantage of a random Wednesday we had off from classes to spend the day there! We opted to take a train, which took just over 30 minutes each way, and was only about 20 euros each roundtrip. Toledo is a very old, historic city, and probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We got into Toledo just before 10am, and even just the walk from the station to the main part of the city was breathtaking. We immediately had a great view of the fortress (“Alcázar de Toledo”), which unfortunately was closed to visitors on this day, but was still incredible to see from the outside. After making our way into the city, we started off at some gift shops. Toledo was a part of the route of Don Quijote, Cervantes’s famous character (more about him later!), so there was a fun statue of Don that I had to take a picture with.
Toledo is a city filled with thousands of years of history, and has been famous for its sword-making since around 500 BCE. So, one interesting implication of this is that there were swords for sale in pretty much every single gift shop we went into! We didn’t buy any, but it was certainly cool to see.
The history of the city is also evident in the architecture and the streets. I really did feel like I was stepping back in time!
We did spend a lot of time just walking around and exploring, but made sure to hit a few of the famous sites in Toledo, including a beautiful monastery, San Juan de los Reyes, which is from the 1400s.
We also stopped by the beautiful Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, and the Santa Iglesia Cathedral, before heading over to Plaza Zocodover, the center of the city. We finished up with a quick dinner before heading home!
Alcalá de Henares
I’ve been a big Don Quijote fan ever since reading the (abridged) story in a middle school Spanish class. I also was able to see the ballet a few years ago and it immediately became one of my favorites! So, I was very eager to take a trip to Alcalá de Henares (the birthplace of the author), a quaint town slightly northeast of Spain. This was our easiest trip transportation-wise; we just took the metro a few stops and then got on a bus for thirty or so minutes, all using our 8-euros-a-month Madrid transport card!
It was a cold, rainy day, and I was a little sleepy, so the first stop was coffee. I immediately noticed that Alcalá de Henares seemed like a place where everyone knew each other, whether young or old. After we were sufficiently caffeinated, we started exploring.
Miguel de Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares in 1547. His childhood home is now a museum, open and free to the public. Cervantes’s father was a doctor, and would perform amputations in their home, which was certainly a *fun* fact!
The town also has a ton of little informative signs around, which is how we learned that Alcalá de Henares is also the birthplace of Manuel Azaña, president of Spain’s Second Republic, as well as of Catherine of Aragon, one of the six wives of Henry VIII.
We also decided to visit the Regional Archaeological and Paleontological Museum, which is housed inside a seventeenth-century former convent. The museum was filled with lots of information about early humans and animals alike, and so we spent a while here before grabbing a quick lunch.
One observation I had about Alcalá de Henares was that it did not seem like a big tourist destination, especially compared to Toledo and Segovia (day trip #3!). For example, at most of the attractions we visited in the latter two cities, there would be signs in English as well as in Spanish. However, in Alcalá, I got the sense that a lot of people didn’t speak English, and in the museums, the signs were solely in Spanish. It was definitely a great day for practicing the language!
We did lots more wandering and souvenir shopping, making sure we covered all of the historical town. Another highlight was the University of Alcalá, which quite literally looks like a castle. The “old” university (Antigua Universidad Cisneriana Complutense) was originally opened in 1508 by the Archbishop of Toledo for study of the arts, theology, canon (religious) law, and medicine.
We took one last walk around the town center before heading home around 4pm!
Segovia
My most recent trip was to Segovia, Spain, a city northwest of Madrid. Segovia, similar to Toledo, is famous for being a place rich of history, which was evident from the moment we stepped off our bus. Segovia also has an Alcázar (fortress), and so that was our first stop of the day. One thing I really appreciated about the fortress was that you were pretty much free to wander as you pleased, and we were even able to go down into the basement and up into a tower! The fortress was built in the 1400s, and is incredibly well preserved, full of suits of armor and cannonballs. Another fun detail was that every room had a unique, beautiful ceiling – see below!
After doing some souvenir shopping at the gift shop, we were pretty hungry for lunch, and so made our way over to Plaza Mayor. We opted for a quick lunch of “Bocadillos” (sandwiches), before exploring the Plaza, right next to Segovia’s beautiful cathedral!
We had a couple hours left until our bus back to Madrid, so we took our time getting to the last big attraction in Segovia, the ancient Roman aqueduct. After going into lots of shops, we finally reached the 14,965-meter irrigation system, constructed in the first century A.D. It was a fun place to take photos and marvel at ancient engineering!
It was pretty cold in Segovia this day, so we went off in search of a hot drink, and ending up getting a Spanish classic, churros con chocolate! This is exactly what we needed before our hour-and-a-half bus ride back to Madrid.
As much as I love Madrid, it’s been amazing to take advantage of its centrality within Spain, and get to visit so many other cool cities as well, even if just for the day! Let me know which one was your favorite – I know I can’t pick!