The goblet of fire

Harry Potter had it easy. Run through a maze, find a cup, get the better of Voldemort and wait for the next book.
For us, the maze of Toledo was all too real and hilly. Over 28,000 steps for the day in an extremely confusing assortment of every religion's buildings in one area. Cathedrals? I'm done with them. In and out in 3 minutes. Mosques, maybe 10 minutes, but the guy at ticketing let us in free. Two pretty average big salads that were overpriced, but generally a good place to get lots of pics of old stuff, in between getting lost non stop. 

The trains there and back were great.
The great marathon which has been our holiday is almost over. We gave up for dinner and had burgers and chips (Europe needs to learn the value of BBQ sauce).
I think we are mostly packed. We have checked out how to get to the airport, arranged a breakfast pack and it's all systems go. If they don't have the movie I have half an hour to watch from the first flight over, I will be quite sad. but not as sad as back to work Tuesday will be.

2 choices

I could either be the good husband and go see museums and art etc etc, or I could be the smart husband and do a tour of Real Madrid's Estadia Santiago Bernabeau. I chose the latter. I chose wisely. After a massive buffet breakfast effort, we went our separate ways, with the good money being on me never being seen again.

It wasn't hard getting there, as I just followed the thousands of other people. The recommended hour and a half tour took close to 3. 

My negotiations to sign with their Over 55 squad fell through so I drowned my sorrows with a lousy chicken burger and shake. The shame was not chicken, it was Nescafe caramel again, but it was lacking as well. I decided not to catch the metro back to the hotel and sleep, instead giving the last Decathlon store of the holidays a try. A 5 km walk later and at last it was the store I remembered from past Euro visits. Yet I still didn't buy much.  My shopping powers have dropped over the years,  but if it does ever get cold back home, my new gloves and neck warmer will come in handy.

I put on my big boy pants and successfully caught the train, got home at 5 pm and parked myself on the bed.
After Annette got back, we headed out to eat, and Peruvian it was, which sort of makes my ordering Spaghetti Bolognese look rather sad. Annette's chicken and chips came immediately while mine turned up about 20 minutes later. I don't think anyone has actually ordered it before. From here we went to a flamenco show. I went in quite sceptical but came out impressed, especially with the guitarist. Bootleg copies of the show will be available soon. That done, it was on to the packed trains back to a sleepless night.

Another early start

Why do all the early trains leave so early? I am always counting time backwards. 7:40 train means a 6:40 departure from our apartment in Seville, which means being up before 6. All of this was achieved but our plans changed a little. 30 minutes into our 30 minute walk to the station along rough and cobbled pavement, we were helping our taxi driver get the bike in the boot. Best money we have spent all holidays, except for the 3 or 4 Nescafe caramel thick shakes.
On arrival in Madrid, we decided to check one more time that the bike would fit on the train. The same 2 ladies who told us yes two days ago had now changed their answer. But after some conversation they advised us that the train manager was a nice guy and there would be no problems, and there weren't. By some sort of miracle, we had booked in the accessible carriage and I could of fitted 2 bikes (see what I did there?). Anyway we flew through the countryside at 250 km an hour and got to Madrid just after 10.
The station was close enough to our hotel that no taxi was needed, we dropped our stuff, powdered our noses and headed off for more culture. By now I have figured out that the Moors beat the Christians, the Christians beat the Moors, and on and on. Mosques became churches and so on. I think I have seen every one of those churches, and ticked off another today. And it was only small, woohoo. 

As luck would have it, a police on horses parade stumbled upon us. We walked and walked and when the recommended eatery was closed, found another. While I ate my extremely huge Spanish omelette on bread roll, it became apparent that Annette's bacon and cheese bread roll had gone missing. It finally arrived after stern words and I left before she had finished to get to another Decathlon store, which was tiny and very disappointing. 

Sightseeing done, we headed back to El Hotela (I'm picking up the language fast).  I put on the running gear and hit the local hills for 5 km. From there it was a long walk to another recommended eating place. Sort of tapas-like and the plates were huge, but the table tiny. Annette ordered a bucketful of mushrooms, which she made me eat some of. On pizza yes, grilled, no. She also got calamari,  which she made me eat some of. Yummy. I got grilled veggies and empanada of the mystery type, as the waitress didn't do good English. Her maths was also bad as she didn't charge us for this. All that was left to do was grab a Burger King thick shake on the way back and then try to sleep in the world's noisiest hotel room.

All white now

We are not a big fan of the organised tour but sometimes you have to jump on the bus to do what you gotta do. We arrived early and being at the first pick up point gave us access to a full window to view some pretty amazing things on the way. It also gave a good view off the edge of a couple of mountain passes that were not built for a full size coach. We did manage to not pick up somebody for the tour and they were taxied to a meeting point way down the road at a castle (Europe is either castles or churches next stop).

We did visit the ruins of another castle, built specifically to protect the water supply (which was outside it).

First stop was an olive oil factory where some bread and oil and coffee and tea and WC were greatly appreciated. 

Then we hit the winding roads to our first White Village built on the top of a hill. An unscheduled lunch was called for here and our guide suggested sitting down and eating or grabbing a takeaway sandwich. Later when we advised him that the closest we got to a sandwich was a plain bread roll, he said that was what he meant. Anyway, I'm getting used to plain bread as it comes with every meal. I ate mine and Annette went into chip butty mode. The village was a pretty amazing thing with some great views and not enough room for visitors' cars as they fought to park and just get to a road.

The second village visited was pretty boring.
From here we left for the town of Ronda, where the literal translation on the front of their Information Centre is Help Me Ronda. We had 2 hours to look around and were told of a path to get photos of the bridge. We were also told that there was a barricade that we could jump over. It was actually wire and barbed wire, but after watching some others getting through, we gave it a go. Annette did get cut by barbed wire on the way back but we got our good pictures and didn't die, despite the warning signs. 

There were also some purchases around town. Onto the bus and back to Seville was about 90 minutes of sleep time.
Lazy dinner out in the plaza about 1 minute away, and with a day full of Seinfeld references such as the Moops,  Bosco and Ponce de Leon,  I decided on finishing it all off by ordering a Big Salad. All packed up and ready for another early exit tomorrow.

26,500 steps

We went to the Palace and left as the line was too long. We went to a church which was not too big so all okay. 

We purchased a dragonfly brooch. We, but not me. We walked across a bridge. 

Purchased a massive pastry, not me again, went back home and made chip buttys for lunch..... not all in that order, and went back to the Palace where the line was just as long. Two hours long I believe. Arriving at the line around 4 pm shouldn't have been a problem, but we spent a long time in the sun just pondering the possibility of standing in line all arvo. We tried purchasing tickets on line to jump the queue but that was not working. So we waited, until finally we walked through the gates with what we thought was a bit over a hour to explore. Turns out that we probably had two. There were lots of rooms with tiles, gardens, steps, rooms and walking to do. Was it worth the wait? Maybe, but if you travel around the world and Rick Steves tells you to do something, you do it. 

We headed back to our apartment through the maze of tiny streets, picked some recommended restaurants from Rick and headed out into the crazily busy late night. We ended up at a fancy sort of Italian restaurant and I sort of stood out in my black shorts and gym shirt, but clothes would not get in the way of a good pizza or gnocchi. There was a quick Decathlon purchase on the way.

Let's back it up a long way to the morning where we did a practise walk to the station. On arrival, we went to check that we could take the bike on the train with us. It was like stepping back to my Countrylink days with the attitude we received. Each of these train employees had a double in Australia who I used to work with. Finally a couple of ladies in information said there would be no problems. I left unconvinced and not looking forward to the problems I expected in 2 days time.