We return to Madrid. We put in a call for 6:30 a.m. -- we'll see. Our room is an interior one -- no window to let in light so neither of us wakes up automatically when the sun comes up. I think we were both awake when the call came. As soon as we got to the main street, a cab pulled over for us. Only ½ hour from Atocha to the Valencia, we have room 10 instead of 8 this time. It's the same as 8, slightly smaller. We did have breakfast at St . Justa Station in Sevilla; it cost 645 ptas -- the usual roll and drink thing.

We had located a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves before we left for Sevilla and decided to have an early lunch there. It is the Restuarante Puerto Rico and is every bit as good as he said it would be. It hasn't been "discovered" yet and doesn't have a tapa bar. It is also located at the end of a narrow street (notice I'm not saying where-read his guide.) It's a small place with excellent food and service. Dick had the Cocido Madrieleno , which is a pork stew cooked with cabbage, and chick peas, it is served in courses; the broth first, followed by the meat and vegetables. I had the Arroz de Cuba, which was rice, fried plantain, fried egg, braised veal and french fries. These were served with a split of wine and bread, all was excellent.

After lunch we set out for the royal palace which is about the only sight open on Monday as all museums and things of interest to tourists are closed on Monday. This makes Monday a good travel day. We took the Metro from Sol to Opera station and then got turned around and walked back to Puerto de Sol! Dumb! So we walked back to Opera Station and than to the palace. It was supposed to be open from 9-6:00, but there was a line waiting to get in. Dick went and asked when it would open and was told "about 3:30". Well, 4:00 came and went and we were all informed that because of ""official functions"" the palace was closed for the day! It started raining on the way back to our hotel, of course the umbrella is at the hotel! We stopped at El Corte Ingles to buy a travel bag for our souvenirs and went back to Atocha Station to buy train tickets for Toledo tomorrow. We were told to buy them on the day of travel so that was kind of a wasted trip! We each have four rides left on our Metro tickets; we'll use them tomorrow.

Tapas tonight at the Museo del Jamon, we bought a raccione of ham and melon and two canas, excellent. A raccione is a portion large enough for two people to share.

Dick's birthday! We wanted to go to Toledo at 9:45 a.m. but for some reason the train never arrived! Being flexible, we decided to go to Segovia instead! All this involved was going to the next track, very easy. Segovia is about two hours north of Madrid in the mountains. The mountains were still snow-capped even though the temperature was in the high 60's. The streams were all running full and everything was in bloom. The pansies there were about 4" across, gorgeous!

We took the bus to town, 110 ptas each and walked to the cathedral. There are ladies outside with large displays of handmade lace tablecloths of all sizes for sale. I thought I got one at a good price, 5000 ptas (actually it was) until another lady offered me one at 3000 ptas. I don't think it was as large though. The cathedral was beautiful but very cold! It must be very uncomfortable worshipping in the winter as buildings of this size would be terribly expensive to heat. In the cathedral there is a monument to Christopher Columbus. He is being carried in his casket by four kings of Spain whose treasuries he so enriched!

This is a beautiful town. It is surrounded by snow-capped mountains, a 2200-year-old Roman aqueduct and a beautiful Alhambra that was a former war college in the Middle Ages. Segovia is made for walking. It has a lot more hills than Madrid but was easy to navigate.

March 17

Finally, Toledo! 1750 pesetas each for train fare. More than 2,000 years old, Toledo is the historic capitol of Spain. It was the official capitol of Spain until 1561, when Madrid became the new capitol. In Toledo, you'll see many influences from the people who have held rule over this great city: Roman, Visigothic, Moorish, and Christian. The Spanish Government has declared the entire city a national historical monument. This has protected many historic buildings and added to the city's old-world charm.

It's easy to get lost in Toledo! It has the most tangled cobweb of streets you can imagine and everything is up hill! Segovia's hills were practice for Toledo. Luckily there are plenty of signs for tourists and the locals are always happy to point you in the right direction. Thankfully, Toledo is also a small, compact city -- so you never seem to roam too far from your intended destination.

We went to El Greco's house, it was being partially restored so we weren't able to see all of it, what we saw was beautiful -- many of his major art works. We paid 200 ptas each at the neighborhood church to see his "Burial of Count Orgaz". Both he and his son are portrayed in this picture.

Eventually we found the cathedral; we could get tempting glimpses of it from time to time as we wandered. This does NOT count as being lost because we COULD actually catch a glimpse of the cathedral at street corners. When we finally found it, we went around the corner and bought a beer and ham bocadillo to share in the plaza behind it. The cathedral is huge, ornate, overwhelming, like every church we've seen here so far!

We asked an older senora how to find the Plaza Zocodover, and she said,"Arriba, arriba, mas arriba, paso cinco minutos, pregunta una otra persona" or up, up, further up and in five minutes ask another lady. Well, we walked up, up, up and looked to our right and there was the Plaza we wanted! We were exhausted and hungry so we decided to skip the Alhambra and go back to the railroad station for our lunch and the early train back to Madrid.

I asked the driver to announce the train station, he didn't but at least three passengers told us or we'd probably still be on that bus! We found a little bar across from the station that had a 1700 pta Menu del Dia for a multi-course dinner. We had wine lomo del puerco (pork loin) sopa de fideos (noodle soup), bread and fresh oranges for dessert. We took the oranges, "para levar" (to go) as our train was due to leave in 15 minutes.

The train back cost us an extra 90 ptas each as it was a "rapido" and made only one stop, compared with the 4-7 stops we had made in the morning. We arrived back in Madrid in only one hour, compared to the two+ hours in the morning. We did a little shopping in Madrid for a present for our daughter's birthday. Dick bought himself a new billfold; he used to buy belts, now its billfolds!

This is our last night in Madrid. We spent it wandering around and ate in our last tapa bar. We ordered seafood (mariscos) raccione and white wine. It cost 1850 ptas and contained an enormous amount of shrimp, crab, clams, tomatoes, onions and green peppers, it was fabulous! A great meal to end our trip. We had ice cream cones on our way back to the Valencia.

March 18

Time to leave. We left a call for 6 a.m.; it's a good thing we woke up early because the call never came! Dick doesn't like to leave anything to chance so we always arrive at the airport hours before our flight leaves. We were going to take a cab to the Plaza Colon and catch the airport bus but the cabby convinced us that the Plaza was a very dangerous place to be at 6:30 a.m.. He estimated the cost of the cab ride to the airport to be "about 1500 ptas", it was 3000 ptas. No tip for him. We now had two ½ hours to wait before the KLM desk even opened so we had breakfast, wandered around a while and changed our pesetas back into dollars. Our flight left on time and served a lovely lunch.

I finally spent my Dutch Guilders on some cheeses to bring home for gifts. We noticed a lot of people buying fruits, meats and potted plants. I sure hope they aren't flying to the USA because customs will surely confiscate them! Well, it's time to board. Now we are sitting and waiting on the plane. It seems we have two late passengers and we are waiting for them. Now we have a slight malfunction and we'll leave as soon as it is fixed. Now the Dutch police have said that the two passengers we're waiting for are very bad men and their baggage is suspicious and must be removed! This takes well over two hours. The flight attendants serve snacks of cookies and juice and all of the doors are open for fresh air but no one is allowed to leave the plane. Finally at the end of three + hours we are in the air!!

We arrive home at 11:30 p.m. absolutely exhausted but happy!

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