Trujillo

We left Madrid this morning and headed south west to the ancient town of Trujillo. Unfortunately, the best residents were away as they spend the winter in Africa.
They are white storks who are over a metre tall and have a wingspan of up to 2.25 metres, or over seven feet.
Their giant nests were on top of all of the buildings though and were pretty impressive, even when empty.
They were also keen on electricity pylons and there was nests on every pylon on the way out of town.
The old city was also very nice, lots of crumbly buildings, narrow cobbled streets and statues.
We also had a nice afternoon in Madrid yesterday and we watched some authentic looking dancers. They performed a strange dance where the hombre balanced on one foot in his shiny shoes and the seniorita slowly wheeled him around in circles.

Madrid sights

We are still in Madrid as there is loads to see and do here.
Nothing exciting to report, but just a nice wander around looking at the sights.
On the way walk back to the bus station we passed Atletico Madrid football club,  which was surprising as a busy dual carriageway runs right underneath the stadium.

Virtual lunch at elBulli

ElBulli was until recently voted the best restaurant in the world, although it has now closed.  It's head chef, Ferran Adria, made food that was cutting edge, complicated and just plain weird.
He served tasting menus with many, many courses, and today was my chance to almost experience them.
We went to an exhibition about Adria, unfortunately only in Spanish, that explained all about his techniques. It was all getting bit difficult to follow until I found a table that was ready for lunch.
I sat down and a video background of elBulli restaurant played behind me. The meal was videoed on to the table from above, and it seemed as if I was really there.
Each course was served by an invisible waiter and then I could see the diners hands as they ate the food. They were lifting it to their mouths, and it was almost as if I was eating it as well!
Really, really weird but very interesting, although I watched loads of courses and couldn't recognise a single ingredient.
For real lunch we went to the fantastic San Miguel Market where we wandered around looking at all of the stalls, drank Vermouth and snacked on olives and cheese.

Long day in Madrid

We caught a bus to Madrid today and set off on a marathon sightseeing session.
Firstly we saw the statue of Miguel Cervantes and his creation Don Quixote with his servant Pancho - the pair from the windmills post a few days ago.
Then we obeyed the order in a guidebook and took a photo of me standing in front of the statue of a bear feeding on a strawberry tree. Not sure why, as there was lots of other things to photograph, but the instructions were very clear.
We also went to the top of the dome of the Cathedral de la Almudena to enjoy the views of the city and beyond.
We carried on for hours, stopping briefly for pizza, then wine, etc, etc. We finally got home just before 10pm so I think we might be due a lazier day tomorrow.

Art in Toledo

Toledo is crammed full of museums and churches and we had a good go today at seeing as much culture as possible.
Our main target was the artist known as El Greco, and we have learnt so much about him that I think I could answer questions about him on Mastermind.
His real name, that unfortunately I could never remember, (maybe I would struggle on the telly) is Domenikos Theotokopoulis.  He is better known as El Greco because he was born and brought up in Greece. He then moved to Venice, Rome and eventually Toledo where he lived from 1577 until his death in 1614.
This year is the 400th anniversary of his death, and there is a big exhibition of his work that we spent time wandering around.
The most surprising thing to me was that he painted a few original paintings, and because they were very popular, he had a workshop where other painters copied his work and then El Greco would just add finishing touches and sign them. Some paintings were better than others and the museum had up to five copies next to each other so that we could work out which one was the best.
He also had a sense of humour and added self portraits into his biblical scenes - there he is just behind my left shoulder.
The museum was surprisingly quiet and we were easily outnumbered by security guards who followed us all the way around, only leaving us when we stepped outside into the deserted museum courtyard - pic 2. 
Picture 3 shows one of the many churches. We bought tickets to the top of the towers where we got some lovely views over the town.

Panoramic Toledo

We left the windmills yesterday drove another 60k to Toledo. It is a beautiful place and the old town is a teardrop shape, that is partially surrounded by a river that wraps round it in a curvy U. I have no idea if that makes any sense, but it is clear as a bell to me.
We walked along a panoramic road that runs on the outside of the U on the opposite side of the river to take the first two photos of the town.
They are supposed to be a montage, with the first pic the left hand view that almost joins up with the right hand view in pic 2.
After our walk around the outside, we then headed into the centre for a very nice wine and tapas lunch, then back to the campsite via an ancient Roman bridge.