We started today in true holiday style with breakfast at "our" local cafe at 11am. A typical breakfast consists of "dos cafes con leche" - two coffees with milk - and then a portion of "churros" - a spanish style donut - and "tostada y tomate" - toast with grated tomatoe and olive oil.
The churros are traditionally eaten dunked in hot chocolate!
We then wandered up the street to the local Dias Mercado and stocked up on bread, ham, cheese and wine for a picnic lunch. We also stopped in at our local convent...to purchase a boxes of "galletas" or biscuits made by the nuns who live there. This wasn't a secluded convent, so when we rang the door bell we were invited inside to make our purchase. There are still many convents in Spain, and a large number of them sell sweets or "dulces" to the public as a means of supporting themselves.
We had seen a beautiful park from the bus on our way home from Segovia, and went in search of this spot of green. We came across the Templo de Debord, which is an 2200-year old Egyptian temple that was shipped to Spain, stone by stone, in 1968 by the Egyptian government as a gesture of appreciation for the help received from Spanish archaeologists in rescuing the Abu Simbel temples from the floods of the Aswan Dam.
We then spent the better part of the afternoon parked off on the grass in the most gorgeous park. We watched half of the population of Madrid walk their dogs, and were highly entertained by the antics of both the dogs and the owners! But the best part was eating fresh baguette with serrano ham and cheese and pop-in-youtr-mouth-ripe cherry tomatoes! Oh and course, the obligatory bottle of Rioja wine!
We then headed back to the hotel for our siesta before hitting the town once last time!
We headed out around 7pm on our "tapas tour". We decided to stay within walking distance of the hotel, and the plan was to simply walk into any and every bar that looked busy and enticing! By 11pm we had visited 5 bars, and finally decided to settle in for a light meal of tostadas. By Madrid standards we called it an early night and headed back to the hotel round midnight. All in all a fantastic evening!
So tomorrow, Friday, we head off to Morocco for three nights. We'll be staying in a small town in the north, called Chefchaouen, about two hours from Tangiers. We'll probably only update the blog once we're back in Spain on Monday or Tuesday.
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