On our last night in Madrid, we went for chocolate!

The last shot of the last night, was Elizabeth and DeVonda waiting for the bus for the long ride to the hotel. Hi Girls!



The Pritchett family enjoys the very thick, dipping chocolate. It was almost a chocolate fondu!



Rita picked this place for us to get our after-dinner chocolate fix. We just had enough time before we had to meet the bus. Thick chocolate and you dip long-skinny cake-sticks in it. Yum!

Here are a couple of more photos from across the river, by Howard Du Bose

Here is an attempt at an artistic shot of the St Martin's bridge. You decide which one is better.



Most of the Virginia and North Carolina girls posed for this shot. I think we missed a couple.



The best shot of the Cathedral needs to be taken from the overlook. otherwise, you are just too close to get it all.

Some of the best views of Toledo are from the over-look across the river.

the whole trip, Rita kept waiting for an opportunity to wear the magic hat. Here she is, pretending to be me. Not as tall, but certainly better-looking!



Rita, to remind you, was our wonderful tour director. We got shots in various places sitting next to her. You can see Toledo in the background.



Here are Rita and Donna from Virginia at the over look, across the river from Toledo.



Donna and Randy, the 2 adults in the virginia group, are posing in front of Toledo.



Here is our Toledo group show, taken at the over-look. say Banana!

the bus could never get into Toledo, so everything was a walking tour.

There are several weirs on the river that surrounds Toledo, this one was the easiest to photo. .



Dijah met a couple of Japanese. She took their picture, they took her picture, and I took a picture of all three of them. Dijah was very friendly.



If the big gate I showed you before is Toledo's front door, the St Martin's bridge is it;s back door. That is how we left,



2000 years ago, when they built the walls, they also use available rock to build on and around. here is an example.



In the courtyrd of the only remaining old Jewish temple in Spain, there is this rain gutter downspout. Very classy.

Our last full day in Spain, we went to Toledo. Photos by Howard Du Boae

Here, Rita, Randy, & Lynne are bringing up the rear in one of Toledo's narrow streets. Rita us making sure that no one gets lost.



In some places, they left off the stucco so you could see the original, 2000-year old stone. this is one of the old door lintels.



Toledo has very narrow streets. one had a sign that said it was 2 meters wide! Carlos, our tour guide said this is one of those places it is easy to get lost in. Gone in thirty seconds!



One of the shope had this tin man, who is Don Quixote, and Lynne and Donna could not resist getting next to a man who could not complain!



The front door of the old city of Toledo is this very impressive gate.

Day 8, thursday, was the day we did our Flamenco Lessons and saw our Flamenco show.

Dijah had learned her lessons well, so they had her get up and dance a little. She was good.



Our flamenco instructor and a male dancer showed us just how good they were. Ole!



I got a shot of Brittany taking lessons, or actually showing off how much she had learned!



There was a very large, Valesquez-looking, painting behind the stage. I am not sure if the woman was dancing or strangling a chicken.



Naturally we had to hurry up and wait. They were shooting a movie during our lessons. Our 15min of fame?

Walking tours, 2 in one!

We always met at the clock in Plaza del Sol. east to find.



On our evening walking tour, we ate supper at the Museo del Vino. Interesting Museum. They watered down their wine!



leave it to Hannah to pick a fight with something bigger than her!



This part of Madrid has pretty and interesting street signs. This one is just down from the Royal Palace.



We started our first walking tour in the rain at the Royal Palace, so I just had to get out my midget umbrella.

Sometimes we are lucky and see protests and demonstrations that prove these countries are democracies.

Here is the other protest photo.



Not a protest, this is Raten Sanchez the Spanish tooth ferry. He lives in Room #8 of this building.



While we were taking a break, Hannah tried on her new shoes, then decided to wear out her old ones.



There was a farmer's protest in Madrid when we came by, and er got to see them and they did not bother us. Wonderful. Democracy in action!

We had a great Bus & walking tour of Madrid.

In front of the Spanish Royal Palace is this statue of a soldier. I think it is the statue of the East.



The Madrid Cathedral, shot from the next hill. this is the best place for a good photo. We did not go inside.



We did a group photo under & around the statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Esanpia Square.



The statue to Cervantes is in Espania Square. There is also a nice bathroom across the street. this area also has a Starbucks(just ask the girls!)



We started out bus tour, in the rain, at the modern Arches at the "top", the north end of Madrid.

In Madrid we had dinner outside the hotels for the first time on this trip.

We did not spend enough time in Plaza Major, but we visited it at night, when it is the most beautiful.



A man came thru the restaurant selling roses. Somehow Elizabeth ended up with one. Here she is doing her best Carmen interpretation.



They had a cowhide on the wall of this dinner restaurant. I always wondered if we were eating some of it. I believe we ate here last trip as well.



Sometimes we had to wait for other EF groups to get thru eating before we could go in. This is one of those times.

On our walking tour of Madrid we saw a few things worth photos.

Many restaurants in this area of Madrid had tiled fronts. we saw this one on our walking tour near Plaza del Sol. The tiles were on the other side as well, but, alas, no photo.



I thought this building looked a bit colonial. It was across a small plaza from the Restaurant with tiles on the other photo.



Berlin has a symbol that is a bear, but Madrid does also. The story has something to do with a bear eating strawberries off a tree. i will try to look it up and get back to you with the real story.



I always love to take photos of Jewel next to or in front of things. she is very photogenic. Here she is next to a civil guard, in front of a public building, where our group met several times. He has a funny hat.

Between Salamanca and Madrid, we stopped in Avila, and we stopped at a truck stop for lunch.

At the truck stop, we had a few minutes while the others finished lunch, so a few of the Canada girls and our Elizabeth sunned themselves for a moment or two.



Added to my collection of great doors, is the side door to the church in Avila.