F I S H I N G

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Clouds, clouds. There is a school with an airfield for gliders in Ocaña, next to A r a n j u e z …..

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famous for its palace.

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Segovia : the aqueduct is 2000 years old and built without cement, without glue, without anything but stones to keep the stones from falling. All that to get a little water to your breakfast table!

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Bullfight : Madrid is the great Plaza, and the great fights are in May. The drawing is by Goya.

See how small the bull looks?

That’s not the way you see it on TV, and that makes all the difference.

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Madrid north : Can’t miss those towers representing the aesthetics of the Kuwait Investment Office..

TIME Magazine stated that the lean was “intentional”. The towers are not as dangerous as they look.

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At the Prado Museum the top hits are “The Garden of Delight” by Bosch and Bruegel’s TheTriumph of Death, though there is a great Tiziano, and large collections of Goya, Greco, and Velazquez, while 2 minutes further down the avenue, the Thyssen has a Chagall : Our Lady of the Village .

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The Escorial is a palace, a monastery, a great landscape and a royal burial site. It was built by Philip II of Spain, the controversial king who ….

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piled up a big debt and for a while turned Spain into a world power : those green patches were all ruled by Spain.

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Avila, its city walls, its landscape, and its little restaurants where they serve lamb. By car it is about 40 minutes from Madrid and the highway is excellent. Saint Teresa lived and wrote there. –

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Segovia again : the castle, the “Alcazar”, an Arab word like there are many in Spanish, photographed by Miguel.

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Madrid : the Royal Palace. There are 2800 rooms, gardens, pictures, a library, but the King and his Queen live at a villa outside Madrid, “La Zarzuela” ,  photographed by Mad about Madrid.com/guide/

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And Soria?  Burgos?
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A famous fassade, and a little old shrine in the middle of nowhere with nothing and nobody to protect it from thieves.

Go north from Madrid if you don’t mind meeting  more sheep than tourists on your way.

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Toledo

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There is something dramatic and showy about all great Spanish things. It is in the Quixote, in Dalí, in their climate and all over in their architecture, art, landscape, politics, opinions, gestures, and even in their clouds. The photo of the Alcazar  is from Wiki by Diliff.

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Madrid is loved or hated for its “ambiente“, in summer very pronounced as a rather loud, but mostly festive noise of crowds all day and most of the night in streets, bars, parks, all over, all ages, rich and not so rich, everybody.

Go downtown to the Gran Vía

and from there

to the Plaza Mayor, the beautiful old town square.   Here is your subway map:

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The subway stations are easy to find:

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The Madrid drawing is by Rafa Wünsch at Hinternet .

And remember Madrid’s great old park, the Retiro:

where you might see the World’s only statue to the Fallen Angel, and if you look a little longer, you’ll meet a favourite of all times :

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Benllure’s “General Martinez Campos”, but look at that horse.

The name “Madrid” is from Arabic Majrítis. The Arabs ruled large parts of Spain for almost 800 years.

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