May 6 - 7, 2010 -- Madrid

On Thursday we reluctantly left our monastery at Segovia. That wonderful hotel was exceptional in every way, including price, 83 euros ($110 Canadian) per night, which included parking (often this is 20 euros extra) and a superb buffet breakfast (not usually included).

We drove from Segovia to Madrid where we returned the rental car to the airport and took the Metro to our downtown hotel. Although we had two transfers, we managed without a hitch as the underground is well signed and easy to navigate.

After checking into our hotel we decided that a walking tour of nearby Plaza Mayor, Peurta de Sol and Gran Via area was a necessary first step.

Madrid is a large, vibrant city and a mecca for tourists, mostly from Spain. We window shopped on a pedestrianized street, people watched at the Puerta de Sol, strolled to the Plaza Santa Ana for tapas and returned to the hotel. Again and again we noticed young women out with their mothers, shopping or just walking and enjoying themselves.

Today, Friday, we had a light breakfast in the hotel and Duane went shopping for a fuse (which he found just up the street in a little shop that specializes in fuses, batteries and bulbs) for our Kindle. Duane is absolutely loving having the Kindle with us as he reads the Toronto Globe and Mail and the New York Times every day. It's especially wonderful to stretch out with that at night when one is absolutely too tired to take another step. (NB: Carol would use the Kindle as well if Duane would let her get her hands on it.)

We then walked to the Museo de Reina Sophia, which has quite an extensive Picasso collection including the amazing Guernica and numerous individual working studies which informed that painting. There were also many Salvador Dali paintings, one of which is included here.

We spent about four hours admiring the wealth of artistic treasures, had lunch in the museum restaurant and then returned to another floor of the museum where we saw the more modern works of art.

After leaving the museum we took a bus ride to the north end of town, through modern Madrid, with its office towers and government buildings. Madrid is extensive and it has a wonderful mix of old and new.

May 4, 2010 -- Salamanca

Today we drove a circular route from Avila to Salamanca, then to Valladolid, and finally to Segovia.

The trip to Salamanca was through a rolling grain-producing area, initially with a fair amount of fallow fields in evidence but nearer to Salamanca we encountered a good deal of irrigation. This is not a heavily populated area, with many miles between villages and few farms in sight. We have heard that Spain is burdened with the latifundia system of land ownership –- large acreages in the hands of very few landed gentry and many landless people and this may explain the extensive holdings. The fields are tilled with modern farm machinery and no farm workers were in evidence until we reached the irrigated areas which featured smaller plots of land.

Salaman- ca was wonder- ful. It is a small and isolated univer- sity town with a massive square, Plaza Mayor, on which many streets converge and one enters the square through portals. The Plaza Mayor is truly the centre of town and evidently the scene of many celebrations and events. Today workers were setting up for a major book show, but formerly it was the scene of bullfights and other spectator sports and it is still the scene of the evening paseo where boys check out the girls and vice versa. The cathedral and the university are right next door.

The university is the oldest one in Spain and was set up as a secular institution, a reputation it fiercely protects. Apparently during the Inquisition one professor was hauled away for making remarks not entirely favourable to the Roman Catholic Church and he was subsequently tortured and imprisoned for five years before finally being allowed to return to his position. His first lecture apparently began with the words: “ As we were saying….”

Workers were labouring on the facades of two or three major buildings, buttressing the facades so that the brand new buildings could retain the exterior of the old buildings. Apparently this is quite common in Spain.

Salamanca makes almost no accommodation for English-speakers but the people who we encountered on the street or in cafes were very enthusiastic about giving directions, explaining things in Spanish, or very nicely correcting our pronunciation.

The trip to Vallado- lid was through more beautiful country- side, mostly in cereal production, although we saw some small and isolated vineyards. We hadn’t heard of Valladolid before and chose to go that route merely to avoid backtracking. It turned out to be the most modern and planned city we have seen -- everything was new and squeaky clean. We can’t think of what is driving the extensive development -- we must do some Wikipedia research on that question.

From Valladolid to Segovia we drove through extensive pine forests and then increasingly rich agricultural land. We are certainly getting the impression that Spain is a predominantly agricultural country and one that has benefitted immensely from the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Community which is highly protective of, and offers huge subsidies to, agriculture.

More on Segovia tomorrow; tonight we are staying in a lovely convent, San Antonio el Real, which has been partially converted into a hotel.