This week we holidayed in Spain to see the total solar eclipse, as planned by dad over a year ago when he was inspired by the USA's total eclipse. The trip includes myself, Mark, Caitlin, and dad, as well as four of Caitlin's friends (Oli, Laurene, Martha, Colin).
We are staying near the Segovia dot on the map - within the totality region.
*Should I be splitting this blog into more tidbit sized posts? You're getting a big chonky blog post today. Put your reading glasses on and get some snacks!*
Monday, 10th August 2026
Mark and I travelled to London on Sunday evening in preparation for our early flight on Monday morning. We'd meant to spend the weekend in London, but I ended up covering a Saturday shift for a friend instead. Ah well, London will still be there another time.
On Monday we got up nice and early, with travel comprising of uber -> train -> plane -> metro (with many many changes and a short stop in Madrid) -> train -> car. We stayed in Migueláñez, a small town around 1 hour NW of Madrid.
Airport breakfast.
We were meeting Oli and Laurene to share a train and therefore a dad-lift to Segovia from Madrid. As we had a few hours spare between our plane landing, we decided to explore Madrid a wee bit.
Leaving the central train station, we picked a direction and went that way. Our very brief impression of Madrid is beautiful big buildings, a clean city, and very hot (as is all of Spain).
Puerta de Alcalá.
Palacio De Cibeles.
Whilst we only did a speedy run around about 10% of the city, what we saw was beautiful. Big lovely buildings, and we went to the El Retiro park for a snack and brief lie down in the heat. Well, we thought it was a brief lie down, until we realised we were on track to miss our train. Yes, the train we had hours spare to catch!
El Retiro park.
With a very nice lie down.
First ice cream of the trip!
Fortunately we got the next one only 25 minutes later so not a disaster by any means, but I did feel a bit stupid there.
Our Migueláñaz home.
Tuesday, 11th August 2026
Today we had a chilled morning, reading our books and sitting outside for breakfast. In the afternoon we headed to the Cerro De San Isidro, an open-air site of ancient Palaeolithic engravings.
If you squint hard, you can see a horse made up of punched out bits in this rock face (see diagram).
Hot hot hot!
During this wee walk, Mark had the unfortunate experience of having a nosebleed caused by some sort of insect flying up his nose. Lucky Mark! Now blood in addition to the suncream already on his top.
Town square.
We hopped in our (big) paddling pool back at the Airbnb to cool off.
Later that evening we walked up to a nearby hill during sunset to scout out our location for tomorrow's eclipse, before visiting a local bar for a drink. I actually liked the beer - maybe because it was cold, maybe because it was €1,20. Dad has a habit of finding the best English speaker from the group of locals, which left Caitlin trying to chat to some lovely Spanish women who did not speak any English (and Cait who does not speak any Spanish).
Look back towards Migueláñez.
"I'm climbing horizontally!"
Wednesday, 12th August 2026
This was the exciting day.
We started the day by driving to Segovia, a city to the NW of Madrid and the capital of the region we were staying in. This city is known for three main historic landmarks: Segovia Aqueduct (what I was most excited for), the gothic cathedral, and the Alcázar fortress.
We parked by the Plaza de Toros, a bullfighting colosseum/ring built in the 1800s, falling into disrepair in the 1840s, and repaired in the 1900s and in use today. Not that it looks quite alive today!
First up was seeing the Segovia Aqueduct, we'd parked not far from where it appears; water would have previously run in a channel from the mountains for 15km before arriving in the city. It was built around the 1st century AD (~2000 years ago!) during the times of Roman emperors. The aqueduct then slowly grows, starting with wee singles arches, which grow, then second arches appearing. There it turns a corner before reaching its full glory in the main Plaza Azoguejo. It reaches 28.5m tall, was in use until 1973, and looked amazing!
Caitlin shows us the U-shaped tunnel the water would have flowed down.
It started off quite wee.
Then grew.
And grew.
And grew some more.
It even gets to be an international historic civil engineering landmark, and the background for an ice cream shot. Get yourself an aqueduct that can do it all.
Second up, we headed towards The Cathedral of Our Lady (Segovia cathedral). This is a gorgeous and grand cathedral with a real wow impact when you enter the square. If you've ever watched Game of Thrones, it gives the same feeling as the Red Keep does - towering over the city.
We later explored the inside of the cathedral, but I must confess that dad/Cait/Mark and I (the uncultured group) didn't spend much time there. We thought the cloister was the best bit.
Thirdly, we visited the Alcázar of Segovia, which was a beautiful medieval castle. The gardens surrounding it were gorgeous, and as the fortress sits on a rocky crag at the edge of the city it was very dramatic, with its 'disney-like' turrets. We would have liked a quick perusal inside, but the long queue for tickets wasn't inspiring.
Cait didn't get the green memo.
We found a cafe for snacks and drinks before heading to see the inside of the cathedral (see above - we didn't last long). Did my parents not foster a love for old paintings and gold? No, they were too busy taking us to planetariums and maritime museums. Typical.
House of Spikes (appropriately named).
Just before we left, I saw on a tourist map that I'd missed something in the main square - a replica of the Capitoline Wolf sculpture, gifted to Segovia by Rome to celebrate 2000 years of the aqueduct. I've seen the what I believed was the real one in Rome (but is just a replica in a corner of the Palazzo Senatorio), and I love any bit of Greeky-Romany-history. Now I'll have to go back to Rome and make sure I see the real one.
That evening was the 'pièce de résistance' of our trip - or rather, the main purpose of it. The eclipse!
We walked up the hill behind Migueláñaz and secured our perfect viewing spot. The hill slowly but surely filled with ~100-200 people (the whole population, it seemed), including the group of Spanish friends we made the day before. They came bearing free sangria!
(don't balance sangria on your dad's expensive telescope)
From L to R: Colin, Martha, Mark, me!, Laurene, Oli, Caitlin, dad/Rog.
Once the telescope(s) were set up, we settled in with our eclipse glasses and our snacks to watch the show.
First contact was just past 1935, totality at 2031, and the eclipse ending at 2119 (sunset). Or ish, I wasn't watching the time. I was too busy peering away through my glasses at the sun slowly being eaten by the moon, until the absolute awesomeness that was totality. There aren't many words to describe the feeling of seeing a black orb floating in the sky surrounded by a ring of fire - a real outer worldly experience, and one that made me feel connected to people back hundreds and hundreds of years who have viewed eclipses and wondered what omens it brought. We had about a minute of totality, and could even see solar prominences (red) with our bare eyes. Really, really special.
After totality.
Dad took an epic timelapse with one of his telescopes.
And this video just about sums up the atmosphere.
After totality, we watched the sunset with the chunk missing steadily diminishing. It was cool that once the sun was low enough, we could look at it directly and still see the gap.
Then time for selfies.
Cool Mark.
Reflection/refraction/whatever.
Sunset.
Home time.
What an evening.
Thank you to the moon. I feel that the sun gets all the credit, so well done moon for being 400 times smaller than the sun and 400 times further away, and putting yourself between us and the sun so nicely.
(picture below taken by Colin, not me)
Thursday, 13th August 2026
I'd spent a while trying to get to sleep the night before due to a big headache - a combination of the hot ++ weather, dehydration, some alcohol, and probably staring at the sun without always wearing my eclipse glasses. Therefore Thursday was a recuperation day - for all of us, really. We spent time reading, briefly look into the town square's inflatable foam party (sadly for children only), and napping.
One of the Spanish ladies we'd met earlier in the week ran a chocolate factory museum in the town and offered us a tour/tasting, so that evening we went along. What followed was a 1.5 hour lecture on the history of cacao beans and chocolate, and Spain's involvement in the chocolate trade. It was...long. I'd gone in expecting to learn about the history of the Antigua Chocolate Factory, and came out of it knowing nothing further about the local factory! From a Google search, it looks like it stopped production of Herranz Chocolate in 1997. The woman running the factory tour (1.5 rooms, not quite Wonka's Factor) was lovely, passionate, and informative, but I do not have the patience for learning about the history of chocolate (despite how much I like eating it).
We also had a nice awkward photoshoot.
That evening the town had a festival of some sort, where various groups and bands stayed up all night (waking us at points). We woke early the next day to catch our flight, and watched the tired but cheerful group headed by the brass band marching up our street back to the square.
Friday, 14th August 2026
Home day!
Car -> train -> metro -> flight -> train -> brief interlude for a lovely dinner at Tofu Vegan whilst waiting for a train -> train -> tired walk home.
Mark + comfy chair at the airport.
