The Westin Palace, Madrid

... Mayor and its surrounds. At the Plaza there were people dressed up as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Bugs Bunny and Whinnie the Pooh – we never found out why. We had kebabs for lunch/dinner whilst a bloke played the accordion, then had an early night to recover from the early morning.

... sat there for 1 hour and 40 minutes, verifying that this teacher was actually speaking Finnish. Okay, not really, but it really seemed like it. At one point, I THINK he asked me and my friend Jen (who was seated next to me) a question regarding a political system, but we could not understand what he said, so we sat there, absolutely dumbfounded and clueless. It got the point that he said at a snail's pace in English, "eef yu don't undeyrstand mee, please ...

... of these European countries. (i forgot to mention that this morning when we were leaving Avila we went to mail our packages and they wouldn't let us, turned us away, but helped the lady right behind us so we don't know what was going on there but the post office in Madrid was so cool it was ok.) Wednesday we got up after a good nights sleep, very much needed, and went to the most famous bull ring in the world. the ring holds 24,000 people (the one in ...

... the city. This tour gave you a good perspective of the city, showing the key sights and different neighbourhoods of Madrid. We would have been better doing this on our first day but it didn't really suit our time table. I would recommend this to anyone coming to Madrid. We decided to spend the evening in Old Madrid and watch the San Isidro festivities down there. In the late afternoon we wondered down towards this area through Puerta del Sol, a large square ...

... of complaining. We managed to tool around the Plaza Mayor, Iglesia ???? where the prince got married, Palacio Real, many many streets and alleys, Plaza de Espana, the Prado and the Palacio de Communicaciones. The Prado was incredible, and I wish that I had planned enough time to visit the Reigna Sofia as well as I think it has the pieces i'd be more interested in. Oh well. Also, the Palacio de Communicaciones is this incredibly enormous, and gorgeous, building that seems as if ...

... i never met something bad here, and if you were careful enough, you will have great time here.

We rent a 4x4 car with guide to make the tour around Morocco. To sleep we selected different kinds of hotels: from jaimas (tents to sleep in the dessert) to Riads (special hotels, which were palaces in the past). Day 1 (3/08/2004) Flight Madrid - Casablanca 4x4 to Meknes, Volúbilis, Moulay Idris Sleep in Fez Day 2 (4/08/2004) Fez Sleep in Fez Day 3 (5/08/2004) From Atlas mountains to the ...

... kom ons agter dat hulle reeds al ons seats afgegee het aan mense wat vir die vlug op bystand was. Wel dit was gewone seats in economiese klas. Gelukkig vir ons almal, behalwe drie, was daar nog plek in business class en ons vlieg heerlik in business class terug Jo'burg toe. Ek was lekker uitgeput na die twee dae in Madrid en pass sommer uit tot hulle my wakker maak om my safetybelt vas te maak want ons daal al oppad na Johannesburg.