We left the ship early morning and went directly to the train station.
The trip through the countryside was fast and fun, except maybe for the included lunch. The wine was good, though.
We arrived in Madrid and immediately went down to the jam-packed metro to make it to the location of our hotel.
It is a great hotel and our room has a balcony overlook the Grand Via. It is like getting a hotel in Times Square overlooking Broadway.
After strolling around experiencing the sights and sounds of the city, we headed off to our Flamenco Dinner experience.
And what an experience that was!
The drama and passion and energy of the performance is impossible to capture with a photo.
The city at night was buzzing with energy and we strolled around for quite a while absorbing and walking off all that food.
Buenas noches, Madrid!
The view of the Grand Via from outside our room.
The defining essence of Ancien Régime Madrid, the cause of its greatest glories and worst misfortunes, can be traced back to 1561, when a humble Castilian town became the permanent royal seat of one of Europe’s first absolute monarchies.
Madrid thus became the capital of an empire which, in addition to the kingdoms of Iberia, encompassed Italy and the Spanish Netherlands as well as the vast and variegated overseas dominions of the Indies
We are still surprised how many actual bookstores there still are in Europe.
