I slept until nearly 11, having woken up briefly at 4:30 and read for an hour or so. We dallied a bit doing who knows what (oh yeah, trying to figure out where to have dinner with Scott), then headed out to the Segovia History Museum, arriving a bit after 1pm. The museum was larger than Laurie had anticipated (it was her first time there) and we ended up being ushered out at 2pm (it closes for siesta time, as a surprising number of things do). Interesting history of early human activity in area up to 100,000 years ago. Roman aqueduct over 16km long. Very hard to understand how it has stayed intact over 2000 years. So much else (e.g., the Segovia castle/tower) was burnt and rebuilt several times, the Cathedral too. And all of it is older than most structures in North America.
We headed to the Pakistani place Juderia and shared a chicken Tikka Masala, naan and fried veggies (pakora). Nice but nothing special. Friendly service and good beer. Juan’s cousins from London were due to arrive a Maggie’s so Juan prepared a nice lunch for them, a family recipe he worked on all morning, evidently. Around 1:30 they decided to cancel, so Maggie let us know there was a nice lunch available at their place. We didn’t get the message until we had already started eating at the Pakistani place. The shifting plans of Maggie and Juan’s world are evidently epidemic and ongoing.
We headed out to Maggie’s again by about 5pm and waited for Scott. As we waited, Maggie asked if we’d seen the sunset the previous night. We talked about the nice pink and golden light in the square, but she said that it was probably the most spectacular one they’d ever seen in Spain. Juan called Maggie out and they took the boys to where they could see the whole sky, and Maggie said even the boys were lit up about how beautiful it was. She was imagining how magnificent it must have been from Laurie’s apartment. We’ll never know.
Scott happened to be in Madrid for several days with his job. He generously agreed to come to Segovia to see us rather than us trucking down to Madrid. He found his way to Maggie’s, impressed how far in the boondocks it was. He let us know that he has taken a new assignment as customer service manager for Europe, which means he will travel extensively around Europe. He was in Madrid training a new person for the location and helping finalize details for a move of the office, it seems. He caught all of us up on his life — much travel over the years, a wish to stay closer to home, Carmen highly invested in horses and dogs which keeps her at home, and more. Scott has (and had) a number of side projects over the years, including a software company that did something with chat rooms or interest groups. Alexander now working for same crane company, I think. So is Carmen’s brother, who has been Scott’s mentor much of the way. Scott doesn’t really seem to love it, but it’s been a career for more than 20 years so he’s not complaining too much. He lives in a very small town, goes to bed early and wakes up early so he has time to work on other projects before heading into real work.
We stayed at Maggie’s to chat for about an hour or so, then headed into Segovia. Stopped at park for look up at the Castle and took some pictures. Then headed to the Segovia Parador for dinner. First time Maggie or Laurie had been to the Parador. Dinner was on an outdoor patio with a fabulous view of Segovia. I had roast lamb which was excellent. Scott decided on an appetizer salad and got the Judiones beans and sausage on our recommendation. I’m not sure he loved them, also didn’t drink because he had to drive back to Madrid. All of this may have put a kink in the evening. He finally got around to asking me about robots and such, but never did ask what Maggie or Laurie were up to. Scott drove Maggie back to La Losa around 11pm then headed back to Madrid. He evidently survived because he posted more on Facebook the next day. And so now we’ve seen Scott. How many decades until we see him again? Sometimes the desire for family ties is stronger than the reality.
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