TOUR 2 – Great Iberian Tour – WED, 01 JUN 2022 – Day 2 - Madrid, Spain

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WED, 01 JUN 2022 – Day 2: "Madrid city tour. Stroll through the Retiro Park. Visit to the Las Ventas bullring. Evening transfer. The morning starts with a comprehensive tour through the centre of Madrid including the Paseo del Prado, Cibeles, Neptuno, the Gate of Alcalá, Plaza de Colón and Plaza Mayor. We then will visit Retiro Park, an oasis in the city centre, where we will see the lake and the Glass Palace. A visit to Las Ventas Bullring (admission included) is next. This is one of the most famous bullrings in the world where we will learn about the tradition of the “corridas” at the Bullfighting Museum. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon at your own leisure. At sunset we will provide a transfer to Plaza de Oriente, opposite the Royal Palace, an elegant and bustling area with many restaurants serving different cuisines, such as local Spanish food, international and Chinese. Enjoy a pleasant dinner of your choice. At the end of the evening, we will return to the hotel together."

I had just emerged from the shower on Wednesday morning when the hotel phone rang, and I was asked if I was participating in the Madrid City tour. I was totally taken aback, explained the circumstance and declined the offer. Since the message I had received about the alteration of the normal tour schedule specifically stated that I was “the only registered passenger on the section from Madrid to Lisbon,” I assumed that there would be no city tour nor would there be any of the other “normal” activities on Days 1 and 2. Nothing about a city tour had been addressed in the communications I had received. Admittedly, I had not checked the information board in the hotel lobby. Like, why post something for the masses if only “one” person is affected!

When I showed up in the hotel lobby for the ride to the high-speed train station, I found out that there would be two additional passengers on Uncle Larry’s train – one was an electrical engineer in her 30s, Yinzhu, who was born in China but had immigrated to Australia and had lived there for over 14 years before being sent on a two-year work assignment to Belgrade, Serbia and a chemical engineer in his 60s from Chile, Armin, who speaks much better English than I do Spanish.

The train ride was unremarkable (much like a commercial airliner with a view more interesting and varied than the wild blue yonder) and uneventful. We taxi-pooled to the hotel per the instructions we were given.

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Photos

High-Speed Train from Madrid, Spain to Seville, Spain
Virtually All of the Good Scenery Shots Were Spoiled by the Sun’s Refraction or Reflection of the Train’s Windows