Sunday in Madrid, blue sky, cool temperatures. We decided to take a break from hardcore tourism and spend the day in the Retiro park with many other Madrilenos. Retiro is a large park in central Madrid with a large lake, rose garden, fountains, trees and coffee shops. As expected, as the morning progressed the park became more crowded with young families and larger extended families. People brought their soccer balls, roller blades and bicycles and dogs. People w...

We travelled to Madrid on the 25th of October via Spain's high speed rail system. We were treated very well and served a delicious hot breakfast. We were served fresh baked rolls with tomato jam and extra virgin olive oil.......remember Spain is the #1 olive exporter. Then on to huevos revolto (scrambled eggs) with baked potatoes. These are über modern trains that travel at 300 km/hr from city centre to city centre. We arrived at Madrid Atocha station in centr...

We decided to go and see Madrid after dark last evening. We used our hop on hop off tickets and set off around 8 pm from a stop very close to our hotel. While we were waiting for the bus we noticed a helicopter flying around over the central portion of the city, very close to our hotel, we wondered why it kept circling over the same location. As we set out on the bus towards the central portion of Madrid we could see more and more people on the streets to the poi...

Off this morning by train to Cordoba to see the sights. This may surprise you but there is an old Moorish Mosque that was converted into a Christian church once the Moors were conquered and deported. Cordoba is a beautiful small city with lots of antiquities from Roman bridges to Moorish Mosques and Catholic Churches. Not too surprising, we found a great spot for lunch after touring the Cathedral/Mosque, the Caballo Rojo.....no they didn't have horse meat on the...

Early morning departure by tour bus to Granada to visit the Alhambra. The 2.5 hour bus ride took us thru rolling hills of olive trees, lots and lots of olive trees. Spain is the world largest producer of olive oil. As we neared Granada we were able to catch views of the Sierra Nevada mountains with a new dusting of snow.......these are the original Sierra Nevada's not the imitations in California...... some Hollywood creations. The Alhambra defies superlatives, a...