Novotel Madrid Sanchinarro

We landed in Madrid and said good-bye to Amaya and her mom and dad. We picked up our rental car and headed out. well, sort of - it took us 30 minutes to get out of the rental car parking garage. Mike and I haven't driven a stick shift in years. It was pretty comical trying to figure out the car, gps, which way to turn...we ended up going the wrong way on a one way onramp. It could have been ...

... and the heavens opened up..grrr..most of us had skirts and tops..no rain gear and got very well, but it was all good...we ran to the Church got our tickets and were nice and dry inside. The church was a massive gothic creation with lots of gold leaf, lots of marble and the tomb of El Cid. We were suitable impressed and have many photos...and we found the public toilet and got soaked whilst huddling under the shop fronts. We only had a very short time to get our lunch and get on ...

After a fun-filled week and weekend, I was curious to see what this week would bring. Monday was pretty routine. Lots of class, solid workout, and return home by about 8:30 for La Cena. I can't recall what it was exactly, but it was delicious as usual. I hung out in the room for a couple hours, realizing that I spend entirely too much time on the internet on a daily basis. I decided to start a self-intervention. Less time on the Internet and hanging ...

... El Bosco's (the Spanish rendering of Hieronymus Bosch) "The Garden of Earthly Delights," the Reina Sophia to see Picasso's "Guernica" (we liked that many of Picasso's preliminary sketches of small portions of the canvas were also surrounding the massive painting--a really enjoyable way to study the painting), the Thyssen-Bornesmisza--which has an amazing collection of 19th century ...

... the perfect mate to do it. So, we already spent a huge quantity of money in the ticket and we know there's no turning back now. By the way, thanks Carmen for the help and for sharing suffer and happiness with us while calculating the miles!! (lot of hours). The initial route: Argentina-Chile-Ecuador-Perú-Bolivia-Ea ster Island-French Polynesian-New Zealand-Australia-Japan-Hong kong-Nepal-India Welcome to our adventure!

It has been a while since I got on here. My first train ride from Paris to Madrid was quite nice. I ended up in a room with a retired professor from Jerez, Spain and he used to teach French and Spanish. Anyhow, I slept quite comfortably on the bunk bed and he had to sleep with a machine plugged in to help him breath so I kept worrying that he was going to die on me. In the morning, he got up first and headed to breakfast--I joined him shortly ...

... I shared with him my political views as did Cindy, and then the room exploded. The person who was most anti-American was the Chinese immigrant who got a free college education and was permitted to be a U.S. citizen! Cindy REALLY got in his face because she is a first generation American because her mother fled Cambodia, and it got to the point where he told her that he was sorry for what he said. The other thing that really shocked me about the discussion was that ...

... were starving, so our awe subsided quickly as we walked towards a restaurant specializing in Roast Suckling Pig, the whole pig with an apple stuck in it's mouth... a specialty of Segovia. We all tried it, and i must say that it was very good and extremely tender. I can't see myself needing to cook it back home, but it was quite the experience. =) After lunch, we began our walk to the Castle! This is the castle that influenced Walt Disney's castle!! As soon as we ...

... Ham." Every menu I've seen has ham in most of the dishes, and it's even the standard topping on pizzas. They display smoked pigs' legs, hanging from the hoof, on the wall. I like ham as much as the next guy, but what's up with that? 4. You probably have to hear this one to really get it - the accent of the locals has a weird, lisping quality. They pronounce certain soft "s" sounds as "th" - for instance, "Gracias" is pronounced ...

... because some areas are not very good. To rent a boat to make snorkel o to dive is a good option. In the main road, there is the tourist information center. In any case, the 'Acuatic Dive Center' (look at the map) is very good. And the maya city, is very good due to the placement. Score: 5 Location ...