Farewell Madrid😕

We have had a quiet couple of days staying in a lovely hotel Don Pio reminiscent of one we stayed at in Mereda capital of the Yucatan region of Mexico. It has a three storey atrium which houses the dining area with all the rooms opening  onto balconies that look down into the atrium, beautiful.

Yesterday  being New Year’s Day  all the attractions and shops were closed so we blended in with the locals and spent the day promenading around the town visiting a local bar for tapas and a few drinks.

Today we have been more adventurous heading 28 miles north on the train (for the princely sum of £4.50p per person return ticket and 50 minutes of our time) to visit El Escorial a Spanish royal site and UNESCO world heritage site which historically has been a monastery, basilica,royal palace, museum, library, university and hospital. Definitely worth a visit to see the difference between how the Hapsburg and Bourbons utilised the palace and the building itself was stunning. After visiting El Escorial we went for a walk around the town which had various life sized figures depicting the nativity story wise men on camels, shepherds with a flock of sheep that took up a whole street, wonderful to see. Dropped in to a bar for drinks and lunch got talking to the English  guy next to us, (Ben Curtis) he had come to Madrid 19 years ago from London met his wife and now runs an On line language business (www.notesinspanish.com) Decided to walk back to the station thankfully all downhill and not that far ( we had taken a taxi up). We had arrived in sunshine and blue skies now the mountains were shrouded in mist very spooky.

Tomorrow the real adventure begins Santiago here we come.