Part II - Starting the Tour

I have started sorting through my photos so will start outlining the hightlights of the actual tour.

The first stop was Madrid's Almudena Cathedral. It was started in 1883 and just finished and consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993. The current King Felipe VI was married to Letizia Ortíz Rocasolano there in 2004 when he was still a crown prince.

The ceiling had beautiful, colourful frescoes. 

I'm not going to even try to outline more highlights.

We also toured the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) which is just next door.

The royal family don't actually live there but state events are held there. There were many beautiful things; this table for example - exquisite mosaic tile work:

a closeup of one of the butterflies. Many of those little pieces were only a millimetre wide.

The music room held several Stradivarius instruments - displayed in front of mirrors so the backs could be seen.

The throne room.

And on display nearby, the royal crown and scepter. The crown dates from 1775 and the Austrian-made scepter from the 16th century.

Ernest came everywhere with us.

Royal Palace group shot taken by our tour guide, Cecilia.

We had lunch at some point.

At some other point we had churros and hot chocolate. 

One night we made our own tapas at a very cool kitchen. We were paired up at our 12 work stations. Each one had an induction cooktop, all required utensils, and the measured ingredients laid out from left to right.

We put on our aprons and were put to work.

We ate some of the tapas as we made them. These little sausages went well with the crusty bread spread with melted cheese.

After cooking everything, we moved downstairs to eat the dinner we prepared, banquet-style.

Back at the hotel, this is the fabulous room where we ate breakfast every day as well as some lunches. It was beautifully lit. All four sides of the room were like this.  Each shelf had a hand-painted, blue and white talavera plate. 

(to be continued...)