Carlton Madrid

... dripping wet from the rain and red wine fight that we had.. had dinner with the girls the next night to say good by, they were heading to France while we were off to Barcelona.. We really enjoied Barcelona, walked the streets did a bike tour and went swimming, the beach here was flat.. so not the same as home but worth cooling down for a quick dip.. tried to keep away from our hostel as much as we could as it was huge and like a hospital.. but The place had a great vibe and we ...

... Semana Santa, as people are here from all over Spain, and, in fact, all over the world. We will plan to either take a side trip to Toledo by train or tour the Prado museum here in Madrid. I'm recalling Kathleen's advice not to overplan....but to leave room for spontaneity. This is our first time out of our continent, best to get some in-depth appreciation of a couple of aspects, rather than to try and take it all in.

... the very few truly excellent restaurants I have ever tried in Spain. 8 PM - B&H were nowhere to be found. I decided to go get some gelato from what is considered to be the best in all of Madrid (and having sampled it last summer, I can't dispute that). But - nooooooooooooooo!!!!!! It was closed!!!!!! Why? WHY? WHYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!?!? Back to Plaza Santa Ana - 8:30, and still no sign of B&H. By this time, I was getting ...

... to work discovering Madrid. It didn't take long to re-convince that madrid really does have a lot going for it. the weather was beautiful, and by day every public place was full of tables, umbrellas, happy people and accordionists. The prado and reina sofia opened themselves up and we revelled in the art, living and dead. the rapidfire reconquest of Madrid ended with a trip to Toledo, for me a return visit. It remains a gorgeous town though ...

... Every bar and restaurant seemed to be full of people until about 1am. The crowd was a bit older than other places we´d seen. A lot of Spaniards getting around and the odd collection of American or British tourists. Like San Seb. there´s tapas bars galore serving cheap beer and food until all hours. It´s a fair maze of streets around the Puerta del Sol so after several beers we became pretty disorientated and lost, but it seemed every street had even more bars and cafes that ...

... 3 weeks of Espana. We travelled 7 cities from Madrid to Barcelona to Valencia to Alicante to Granada to Cadiz to Sevilla and back to Madrid!!! You may or may not have to patience to read all this so I understand if you don't but to those who do, welcome to me and Nancy's journey in Espana!! Italic texts are added by Nancy. Note: we have made this as family friendly as possible so it should be wholesome reading.

During this whole time me and Nancy averaged about 3-4 ...

... with still 2 hours left to go before my train leaves Madrid bound on the 4hour and 40minute ride to Barcelona; and all this after the hour to Cordoba from Sevilla, and the hour and twenty minutes wait we had in Cordoba, on top of the 2hours from Cordoba to Madrid. If you think you're confused multiply that feeling by two and you'll realize what I'm feeling. Gotta love traveling!

... I spent most of the day with Augustin Balenciaga, the grand nephew of Balenciaga and he was very helpful and interested in the project. We also visited the new museum of fashion in Madrid,which is very impressive. Museo Traje. The most astounding discovery, was to find out they have a collection of roughly 500 pieces of clothing and textiles by Fortuny!!!!! It must be the biggest in the world and there is quite a story behind ...