In Madrid

The bus was all packed and we were on our way from Seville by 8 am.  A full day and two stops later and around 550k's on the road we are in a lovely hotel in Madrid.

On our way here we stopped for a good hour or so at Cordoba and checked out a huge church. It had been an original Moor Mosque which had been converted to a church after the Catholics took over.  It has then been extended several times.  We are churched out already but this was worth seeing.

The Cordoba bridge in the photo above is fairly new as the former Roman bridge required replacing.  By fairly new I mean 400 years!

An ice-cream break and we were on our way again, this time to a genuine Spanish old style winery after a bite to eat at a wayside stop.  Again this was interesting as well.  The wine tasting was of some grapes I have never heard of before.

Our arrival in Madrid and a 5 star hotel happened around 6pm.

Then we went out for a lovely dinner (for which we had to pay) and a night tour around Madrid.  Despite being well after 10pm the city's squares were full of people heading out to eat and enjoy.  I am not an opera fan but during our delightful dinner we were entertained by two emerging opera singers.  I didn't mind what we heard but only in smaller doses.  It was excellent.

Today we visit the local art gallery "The Prado" and then we visit the old capital Toledo.

A farewell dinner all together tonight and then people will head their different ways tomorrow.

We head to Barcelona by the Fast Train, 3 hours for a 500k train trip after a midday check out.

We are in Barcelona  for 3 nights.  I am not sure what the internet access will be so this may be one of the last posts for a while.  However we will try to keep Instagram and Facebook pages going.

We will just have to wait and see.