The guided time in Barcelona included a tour of the Gothic quarter, with well informed guides you can get so much more information about the areas and get into areas that one might not normally stumble across. The tour also included a visit to what is generally regarded as Gaudi's greatest work and an icon for Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia, the famous church. Still under construction since 1926, it is currently scheduled for completion in 2026. It is a remarkable building, as much for the construction as the story, I encourage you to do a little homework and google the church name and follow up on the history.
From Barcelona we took the fast train to Madrid, much like the TGV in France, the top speed is 300km per hour and it is a very smooth ride. When we arrived in Madrid we had to walk a little further to our hotel to avoid the student protest in the main square. We spend three nights in Madrid with tonight being our last. Madrid is a large city, the surrounding area and the city have a population of over six million. We have seen the Royal Palace, regarded as one of the top three former palaces in Europe, the other two being Versailles and the Schoenburg palace.
Yesterday included a very informative tour of the old town area and a visit and tour of the Prado Museum. Our guide was excellent and I have decided that guided tours of art museums for me make sense. I got so much more out of the visit with the detailed explanation of some of the works by Bosch, Goya and Velasquez than I ever would have had on my own or with the canned audio guide.
We did have some excitement leaving the restaurant last night, our hotel is on Puerta del Sol, one of the main squares in Madrid and the one where all the major protests are held. As we rounded the corner into the square there were riot police everywhere in full gear with shields and batons. There have been major protests in Spain due to government cutbacks and they were expecting major trouble last night, We did hear some ruckus later on but there turned out to be no major issues, hopefully we can get out of town tomorrow with no further problems tomorrow
Today we did a day trip to Segovia which is north of Madrid. It is famous for its two thousand year old Roman Aqueduct. This is an incredible structure, In part due to its age but also because of the construction, with no mortar to hold the blocks together and the fact that it spans a large distance.
Segovia is also famous for its roast suckling pigs. We had a fabulous lunch in a popular local restaurant and lunch featured the pigs and some excellent wine from the restaurants own vineyard in Ribero del Duero which you fine fanatics out there will recognize as a great place to have wine from.
Thus far the food included with the tour has been excellent and the wine plentiful, definitely not helpful in keeping off the weight I lost on the Camino. The guides have also been well beyond expectations and have greatly enhanced the experience.
Tomorrow we are off to Toledo.
Until next time
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