La Granja is most famous for its gardens, which cover hundreds of acres and have all sorts of walking paths, lakes and statues to entertain the court. The garden's highlight are the two hundred fountains all over the property, many of them hidden, which are only turned on one day a year. Thankfully it wasn't the day we were there or we may have had to swim back to Madrid.
Either because of the rain or because the region is filled with palaces and castles, we had this one all to ourselves. So we wandered through the twenty or so rooms open to the public with nothing but our echo to accompany us. The rooms were fancifully decorated in typical baroque excess, although the occupants either never sat down or slept, or somewhere along the line somebody swiped all the furniture.
Tuesday was the worst weather day of the trip, dark skies and heavy outbursts of rain, but there were enough breaks in the rain to make the day salvageable. We headed north to Segovia, stopping first at another royal palace, at La Granja. By the 1700's Spain had ceased doing anything important like saving Europe's soul, and the ruling class could settle down and spend what was left of their riches on nice baubles and palaces rather than wars and inquisitions. Unlike the austere Escorial palace, La Granja is clearly a baroque building, modeled, like most palaces of the time, on Versailles. 
We then walked around the town's quaint streets, which were appropriately cobbled and lined with uniformly
well maintained stone buildings. Many of these had been converted into decidedly upscale inns and antique shops, making the town a real pleasure to walk around. Unfortunately we arrived at closing time so all we could really do is walk around, then we headed back to our car (pictured here through the arch) and drive back to Madrid.
Supposedly the town's center doubled as a bullring, as in Penafiel, but this one looked far too ornate and twee for this to be true. Most of the houses surrounding the plaza have been converted into shops and restaurants, and it was clear that the town knew how to capitalize on its charms.
Pedraza was the prettiest town we visited, so we accidentally saved the best for last. The town has maintained its medieval town center through a tough set of defences, including an attractive set of walls and a not very attractive wreck of a castle. The castle is still owned by the local nobility, and at the time we visited it looked to be under renovation, so by now it may look more impressive. But when we were there it looked like it would collapse if we touched it.
We lost the driver (unintentionally this time) so spent some time admiring the view, then heading into the workaday pub, where we had a beer and watched some Spanish soap operas while we waited for Jose to find us, then we headed out for our last stop of the day, Pedraza.
The town center doubles as the town parking lot, 
and the surrounding buildings give the (wrong) impression that the town is a prosperous business center. Away from the center, however, activity levels and building heights drop off considerably, although it never sinks into the coma of Penafiel. The town's church, pictured here, was built around the year 1000 and has the distinction of being the first Romanesque church in the province. That distinction wasn't sufficient to get us up the stairs to the church, though, so the photo is as close as we got.
We continued driving through increasingly green and mountainous scenery, stopping at the hilltop town of Sepulveda.
This is another sleepy town with nothing in particular to see, but what it lacks in castles it makes up for in views. The town's main street lines the ridge on the hill, with other streets dribbling down the hillside.
The town is quite small and, as you already know, completely empty. It didn't particularly stand out until we arrived at the Plaza del Coso, a huge, sandfilled square in the middle of town surrounded by a hodgepodge of balconied wooden houses. This square doubled as the town center and bullring (although not simultaneously). One very strange arrangement here is that, several centuries ago, the occupants of these homes sold the rights to viewing the bullfights while keeping their homes as a way to raise money. So on days when there are bullfights, the current owners of these rights occupy the balconies and windows overlooking the ring, while the homeowners are relegated to the back of the house, which I have to imagine caused some friction over the years.
We went into town for lunch, which was easier said than done. We appeared to be the only people in the town, and we walked around looking for any hint of life, that may lead to food. Finally we passed a restaurant, or at least a house with the word restaurant on it. We opened the door, and entered an empty room with a bar. We kept walking around and wandered downstairs into the basement, which appeared to be a wine cellar, full of barrels of wine. Here we found some tables and a waiter, who welcomed us, then left us at the table. We waited for quite a while for menus, but this restaurant skips that step since they only offer one type of food and one type of drink. As we learned, penafiel is famous for its suckling lamb as well as its wine, and there are a half dozen of these subterranean restaurants in town, all serving the same thing. The meat is a baby lamb, less than a month old, roasted in a slow cooking oven for many hours, resulting in a big hunk of meat you eat with a spoon because it's so soft, and wash down with a bottle of the house red. And that's it, no starters, sides or desserts, but Somchai was in heaven.
The castle is well worth a look for its unique architecture, which many people have noticed looks like a boat marooned on top of a hill. It's also got great views over the lush surrounding hills and the historical town below. The one big drawback is that the castle now houses a museum of wine. Ordinarily I'm a big fan of all things wine related, but this museum is quite dull, and you have to go on a long, guided tour of the museum to see any of the castle.
The town actually deserves a much higher wine profile, because it's at the center of the Ribera del Duero wine region, which produces some of Spain's most prestigious wine.
Next we spent a fair amount of time in Penafiel (the n should have a tilda, that squiggly thing, on top of it, but I don't know how to type that on my Anglo keyboard). It's in a fairly attractive corner of Segovia province, hillier and greener than most of the area surrounding Madrid. The town is dominated by the deceptively awesome castle lining the hill above town. I say deceptive because the castle was built to fit the shape of the narrow ridge, ie very long and very narrow. The castle has been owned for many centuries by the Marquis of Penafiel, whose family still owns it
Unlike Medina del Campo, Cuellar managed to hold onto a fair slice of its historical center. There are a number of Mudejar churches
around town and the city is still surrounded by its (fairly uninteresting) walls, but overall the town looks a bit ragged, so we didn't spend much time exploring here.
Thursday was a very car-intensive day, exploring the little known sights of Segovia province. The city of Segovia, about ninety minutes north of Madrid, is a very popular day trip from Madrid, but the rest of the province is more or less neglected. Our first stop was Medina del Campo, an ugly market town that would make a good candidate for hosting the Spanish version of The Office. But unlike Slough or Scranton, this town was actually an historical powerhouse. During the middle ages it hosted Europe's main trading fair, when merchants and bankers from all over Europe flocked to do deals. The town and the market were wiped out a couple of times, and the current town is completely lacking in character. It has only one remnant of its history, this castle of La Mota. It was one of several castles owned by the powerful, and much hated, Fonseca family, until they were thrown out by the townspeople in the fifteenth century. The castle was then used as a prison and a school and now just sort of sits there. It's a quintessential castle, but stuck in a patch of green surrounded by the modern town, so the location sort of ruins the mytique.
