Day 27 - Saturday 20th May

Breakfast was on level 7 in the hotel at 7:30am. It was a large open restaurant with bright sunshine coming in through the large windows. The bus left at 8:30am bound for Madrid.

First, we travelled for about five minutes and stopped for a photo opportunity at a Roman bridge across the river. This bridge is about 2000 years old and was built with stone and without any mortar. It's still in use and seems to be in good condition.

In the background, we had a good view of the cathedral. It's a nice setting with green parkland next to the river. Philippe had given us five minutes to take photos.

The next stop was at a town called Avila. This is one of the most popular tourist locations in Spain. There are regular day trips from Madrid to see it. There were plenty of tourist coaches coming and going at the bottom of the hill.

Avila is a walled town but, unlike so many other wall towns, the walls have been preserved. In this regard, it reminds you of Carcassone in France. A second unique feature of Avila is that it is a fully functional town within the walls.

The construction of the walls dates back to the 11th century and it is in a prominent location on the top of the hill. Nowadays there is a series of escalators to take you up the hill from the tourist information office.

We walked around the walls and in through one of the arched gateways. After looking at various cobblestone streets and plazas, we walked out through another gateway and then back to a cafe where Philippe had organised for us to sample churros with hot chocolate.

As I was waiting to go inside the cafe, I saw a man carrying three little pigs. There were pigs that had been prepared for the restaurant. Quite a sight.

It was another bright sunny day but quite cold. The temperature was only 8C and there was a cool breeze. We were wearing our down jackets and I would have been wearing my gloves too if I hadn't been taking photos.

On the way to Madrid, we once again travelled on high quality motorways. Before reaching Madrid, we crossed a mountain range. At one stage we went through a tunnel that was more than 3km long - twin semi-circular tunnels with three lanes in each direction.

Although there were large fans in the tunnel ceiling, I couldn't see any ventilation system. At least there were emergency exits in this tunnel.

When we reached Madrid, the bus parked in the underground car park near the Royal Palace. We'd been to this car park at the beginning of our bus tour. We went up the crowded stairs to the surface outside the palace. Philippe said we had just over an hour to find somewhere for lunch.

After checking out a few places near the plaza, we went into one. It was confusing and we eventually sat down for a meal. However, the staff ignored us and so, after a few minutes, we gave up and left. Instead we went to the Costa cafe nearby.

When we walked back to the Royal Palace, we saw the end of a changing of the guard ceremony. It involved horses, flags and soldiers in impressive uniforms.

For a while after the ceremony, soldiers stood guard on horses outside the palace entrance and occasionally paraded around. It was great entertainment for all the onlooking crowd.

As we waiting at the top of the carpark stairs, we found out that one of the women in our tour group had had her mobile phone stolen while she'd sat in a cafe in the plaza. Apparently one gypsy created a distraction, wile another took the phone.

This was the second theft on the tour. A few days ago, someone had her passport stolen out of her handbag in a shopping area.

Next the bus took us on a sightseeing tour of Madrid. A local tour guide called Maria had joined the bus after lunch. Luckily, we were sitting in the front seat behind the driver and this was the ideal spot to take photos as we toured the city.

This tour lasted for more than an hour. The bus dropped some of us back at the palace so we could do a optional guided tour of the palace. Philippe took the others to the hotel on the bus.

The palace is a very impressive building. It is built around a large plaza. Our guide took us up the marble staircase and into the various rooms on the second level. Each room had different decorations. There were plenty of tapestries, paintings, antique furniture and large chandeliers. I've never seen so many chandeliers before.

The tour lasted about 90 minutes. As always the exit was via the souvenir shop.

We reached the Hisperia Madrid Hotel at about 5pm. There is a sign near the front door claiming it is one of the great hotels of the world. It is certainly an impressive entrance. The rooms are elegant and tasteful with dark timber.

Our room had a double bed. The bathroom is large and elegant but the shower is in the bath. The WiFi was very slow and so I tried the premium WiFi but it too was very slow,

Tonight we had the farewell dinner for the Insight bus tour. The bus picked us up at 6:40 and drove us to the restaurant. It was probably the best meal we'd had on the tour. There were multiple courses and we'd had to specify our preferences a couple of days ago. I had hake for main course and Suzy had pork.

The waiters were very attentive and kept filling up our glasses with wine. I gave Philippe an envelope containing a tip for the tour and then did the same for Pedro (our driver) when he dropped us back at the hotel after the dinner.

Many of the tour group went to the hotel bar for a farewell drink. The bar is called the Scotch Bar but they serve all sorts of alcohol. Russell and Rich did a great job of organising drinks for everyone. It was sad to be saying goodbye to our fellow travellers after a wonderful holiday.