Our last day in Madrid was spent going around a spectacular convent of barefoot nuns, who are now thankfully allowed to wear sandals, and the house of Lope de Vega, Spain's nearest equivalent to Shakespeare and obviously a ladies' man.
As part of the local culture we have bought a lottery ticket for El Gordo, the fat one, the large Xmas draw. Queues for tickets at some sellers are hundreds long because they are considered luckier, although they are no more likely to win than if they bought the ticket at another shop or street seller, but as a helpful passerby I asked explained, because they sell more tickets they are more likely to have a winner and this perpetuates their fame. We went to one without a queue as we don't expect to win and we had a plane to catch.
We have eaten so much we are also 'los gordos'. Best value lunch was £11 each for 3 large courses, coffee and tip, which the waiter was surprised to get as you don't really tip here. He was most apologetic that he had run out of the half bottles of white wine that come with the menu so he had to give me a whole bottle instead. We loved Madrid and we hope to return as there is still so much to see and it has a wonderful atmosphere, especially after that bottle of wine.
Thankfully our flight back was uneventful, but we had a tour of all floors of the car park at Heathrow as the taxi driver couldn't remember where he had left the car. Once it was found we set off on a circuitous route through London as he wanted to avoid the M25. Needless to say it took longer to get home from Heathrow than it took to fly there from Madrid. All part of the joy of travel.