The last two days have been a bookshop walk. We decided that it was a good way to discover unseen parts of Madrid as well as seeing what books were on offer. I was also looking for poetry works and maybe a chair and a libreria cafe. I found a sight called ‘Naked Madrid’ and it had a list of bookshops that celebrated poetry. We left our home in Sabatini gardens, passed the palace and [...]

It was nourishing to sit on our outdoor patio, looking down and over this old city, the three cultures spread out before us unnoticed in this blended town on our last morning. This was after our breakfast down below our award winning patio into a curved roof cave with Karima looking after our every need. She was the everywhere girl who cooked, cleaned and cared for the girls from Japan, the older couple from Prague [...]

Toledo is a city of twisted streets, where it is difficult to find one where you can see 50 metres ahead. Not only are there infinite corners but because it is on a sharp hilltop, you are in danger of falling backwards if you look up too far. Like any old city in Spain, it is hard to move about with quiet ease. A walk around the castle walls alongside the Tagus river, and across [...]

Last stop before Madrid is Toledo even though it’s after. The bus took us through typical Extremadura countryside that I talked about some days ago where poor quality soil gains extra attention through thoughtful land management practices. The small lakes, minimal stock, crop, bush and grass growing rotated to increase soil fertility.  Now it’s a train from Madrid to Toledo. The soil is richer, there are bountiful crops under irrigation from nearby rivers and it [...]

The common denominator today was rock, just in different forms and ages. In the morning we went to look at rock art, the world’s oldest cave paintings at over 67,000 years old. It took a bit of finding because the street it was in was a continuation of the street it was supposed to be in. It was found a little easier in the late twentieth century by workers mining for stone. The cave which [...]

This is the home of 28 palaces, not all built for royal families but also wealthy families built them as their home. There are 30 medieval towers, others, older, are a mixture of Roman, Islamic,  Northern Gothic, and Italian Renaissance. Although the Romans were here in 25BC, there is evidence of human occupation dating back 25,000 years.  It is easy to lose your way as streets go in a variety of directions over undulating hills, [...]

Our train from Merida to Caceres took us through the unique region of Extremadura. It is unique in the sense that it is farmed and grazed to benefit the land, rather than to make huge amounts of money. The land is divided into roughly 600 hectare-size privately owned landholdings (dehesas). They consist primarily of varying densities of Holm and Cork oak trees with a smattering of others, covering tens of thousands of hectares planted in [...]

Rome today. We walked across the world’s longest Roman bridge with the typical arches below while looking at a very modern one with one arch above where the pedestrians walk along through the centre. I suppose this modern pedestrian centre path is very similar to days of old where pedestrians would have walked across the centre. The arched architecture used on this bridge I believe was used by many latter Roman bridges. After a back [...]

On the roof of our hotel at sunrise, but buildings hid the golden view. It was fascinating though to see the light suddenly appear on the eastern olive groves, then on the nearby stork tower, and slowly work its way down until the tower was fully lit. Mother stork was standing well before dawn while the storkling waited until sunrise before stretching its long coral legs. In the other room there is no dawn appearance [...]

A palace in a plaza is our home for the next three nights. Like in Cadiz, we have a large roof deck which gives a different aspect to the place and we see different things. We don’t often move in 5 star circles but Corrie is a booking.com genius so how could you refuse a 50% discount. Being in the centre of the old cities is what we love best when travelling, soaking up the [...]