Leaving Madrid this morning.
Samuel our tour director gave us more information about Madrid. Madrid has three million people and six million including the outer regions. Most people are Roman Catholic.
After Franco died you were allowed to be another religion. This was around 1975/1978. When he was ruling everyone had to go to church. They actually called a roll to make sure you attended. I don’t want to ask what happened to those who didn’t attend.
Spain has a King who is the supreme commander of the army. He reigns but has no political power. The current king is King Phillip VI and he has been king for three years. His father abdicated due to an indiscretion on his father’s part. The public found out that he broke his hip whilst hunting elephants in Botswana with a 46 year old blond and had to be flown home by private jet at the expense of the public. This was all while the unemployment rate was 26%. Apparently, the Queen had to be coerced into coming back from Greece to see him in hospital. I wonder why?? Subsequent operations compromised his health and he ended up abdicating.
The opinion of our tour director is that the current king is well educated and doing a good job. However, his wife only wants to be queen from Monday to Thursday between the hours of 9.00 – 3.00. Which is a bit of an issue.
There was more royal gossip but we must get on with the rest of the day.
Segovia was our first port of call this morning. There is 55000 people live here. Some of the people work in Madrid as it is only 25 minutes on the train. We are here to see the aqua duct built by the Romans and the cathedral of cause. The aqua duct has 118 arches. It has been restores and maintained and is 800 metres long. It still works but would not cater for the current population of the city. The cathedral built in Spain in the Gothic style.
For those soccer fans Barcelona beat Madrid much to our tour guides disgust.
On the road again to a winery, but not just an ordinary winery. PORTIA Bodegas designed by Norman Foster. We had a quick bite to eat and then the tour of the winery which looks a little like our Parliament House from the air which crushes 1.2 million kilos a year. They built this after winning a major award somewhere. We think these people have a lot of spare money. This place is architecturally amazing let alone the equipment and technology on the manufacturing side. So much stainless steel and the overwhelming smell of French oak in the barrel room. However, lunch from the verandah made us think of home and how we would all enjoy having a red wine together on it. It even had a six lane highway not far away and no noise.
Then it was onto Burgos to see ABC another bloody cathedral that was TBA totally bloody amazing. Where do I begin? It is built in the French Gothic style which we have not encountered. It has so many chapels I do not know which one you would go to on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday … It contains the Tomb of El Cid who was a mercenary in the 11th century who would work for whoever paid him the most money. It was amazing. I know we say that every time we see another cathedral but its true. It is overwhelming and you could spend a day looking at these places.
Then onto Basque town of Vitoria to stay for the evening
Ken & Louise Dudley 
We loved the aqueduct and walked up the hill from where u took your photo to the top where it ran on the ground again. Did they tell you there is no grout between the stones? Amazing we couldn’t do this today with modern machinery. Crazy shit
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