STILL IN SPAIN!

Madrid, Spain
Day 27

Went in seach of Tapas! (hors dóeuvres) Which of course are not hard to find! At 12 oclock! OK we slept in!! We found a place that sold Tapas and we asked for the traditonal plate.

We got a fried assortment of squid, prawns, potato and other things that we didn´t quite know what they were. And we´re sure this was not a regular plate of tapas. Did they think we´d just like fried food cos we´re American´s? (Honestly, people don´t really know WHAT or WHO we are...

We´ve so far been mistaken for British, German (mostly) and American!) Perhaps they don´t know what an Australian is! Ok, a bit harsh, but we´re out of tourist season at the moment and from what we´re oberving, we´re the only non spanish people about! And we´re confusing everyone. Even ourselves! (who are we again!) Greg sounds a mix between african, spanish, italian and allsorts hahaha! He transforms with every country we go to! :-)

Today´s plan was Avila.

No busses.

Segovia.

Too late.

(Story of our life!)

SO! We got the last guided tour of the Madrid Palace! And we feel blessed!!! What a tour. The tiny little gnome of a spanish lady, dressed in black with clogged shoes (who told us she learned English in England) was the guide of our minority english speaking group. She was so funny, whenever anyone tried to join our group she shooed them away saying they didn´t belong!

But she was loyal to us, her little group and we got quite friendly with her. She shared information that was ´secret´and said although she thought she could show us what was under the dining table of the great room she wouldn´t out of respect! (a boring old ply table apparently!)

But what a site the palace was! Talk about over the top! If the Toledo cathedral was considered extravagent, this was as well. There was a lot of Italian and French influence as the King of the time (Carlos 1V) had ruled Naples in Rome so had a good knowledge of Italian design so he brought it with him. All but one of the chandeliers in the place were Italian or French! The only Spanish one was in the Queens (Isobel) writing room!´

This is because the original old castle burned down so he had to redeorate and rebuild. In 1788. Anyway, whatever the influence was, it was massive. Gold. Marble. Bronze. Imported goods.

Shall we talk about the starving people of the time, at this point, or just forget that?

OK. Just to justify the extravagence of the place, apparently 6000 people actually lived at the palace at the time. In the 16th century. Including royal family, servants etc. Of 3000 rooms we saw 32 rooms! It´s bigger than Buckingham palace and the palace of the verselles in France.

After all this..and all the walking..we stopped at Nice Cream and had an icecream!!!

What a day. Walked SO MUCH TODAY!

By the way, we only just got back to the hostal in time. Our hostallier locked the great iron doors 30 seconds after we arrived back!!! Phew.

I wonder what we would do if we were late for the 11pm curfew?