May 4th

Another great day in Spain... we slept in a bit and walked to the Plaza Mayor. It was a beautiful old plaza with cartoon characters all over the place. Really unfortunate. People dressed as everything from mickey and minny, to puss in boots, and fat spiderman (I think that's his schtick). Anyway we bought tickets  for a guided walking tour later in the day and then walked around a different area of Madrid.  Had a siesta of course and then went on the walking tour. We saw the Royal Palace, a convent where the nuns aren't allowed out ever, until they die according to our guide, the oldest restaurant in Spain, a few statues, etc. We visited a bakery to have the traditional sanisidro cookies (Sanisidro is the Saint of Madrid and in the next few days there is a festival for him). The cookies were extremely light and very tasty. After we headed to an
upscale market and nibbled on a few goodies. Dinner was awesome! We went to three different places for TAPAS! We had 6 small ones at the first place and my favorite had a white fish with the most flavorful olive oil I have ever tasted. We headed to another restaurant for two more options and finally a third where we finished with another two. Again with another white fish this time with cheese and a sun dried tomato. I could get used to this food. Tomorrow we're off to Toledo, a medieval town full of very old mosques, churches and synagogues, I'm very excited and ready to be heading somewhere new.

Plaza Mayor

Basilica de San Francisco el Grande

San Andres Cathedral

Tapas! The tapas restaurants we saw were very small and really only had standing room. All the tapas are pre-made so it all comes out really fast and in a few places you can point to what you want so a non Spanish speaker like me is ok! There is a lot of bread but the contents are delicious! We had smoked salmon, white fish, tuna, cheese and anchovies, mussles, duck, more cheese, and I think that's about it. A wonderful dinner!