Spanish Wonder tour

"Hola" from Spain. My last day in Switzerland was again rainy and cloudy so we all missed out on going up Mt Pilatus and we were disappointed with this.  We spent the day wandering the streets again. Haylee bought a few things but generally Switzerland is quite expensive (even more so if the Aussie dollar wasn't as good as it is at the moment) with a hot chocolate from Starbucks being €7 which is about $8.50. It's a bit of a shock compared to Hungary. I was sad to leave mum and dad and then the Godfreys at the airport (thanks for that by the way) especially when Teliah gave me a gorgeous little note. I flew to Madrid via Palma de Majorca which had people wandering the airport in shorts and tshirts with me rugged up from being in Switzerland. I got to my hotel and had a welcome drink with my tour. I am sharing my room with a lovely lady from the US but currently living in the UK and she loves sleep as much as I do - yippee (and who speaks Spanish which is incredibly handy). Travelling always makes me so aware of how accommodating other countries are, knowing English and their native one. Yet we don't do the same for them. 
The next day we did a bus sightseeing tour of the old part of madrid and it was very much like a tennis match... On the right you have the prado museum and on the left you have the Neptune fountain and here is a 2 second glimpse of the royal palace before we go through a tunnel and if you can take a photo through all the cameras pressed against the windows on the left we have the queen Isabella statue and we just passed a beautiful building so take a blurred picture of it with the traffic lights in the way as we speed pass and on the right... (you get the point - but all in a lovely Spanish accented voice). The afternoon was much more delightful. We went to Toledo a medieval city that used to be the capital of Spain. It was beautiful. The walking tour was great (apart from truly feeling like a sheep following the guide with 52 other people and listening to her on an earpiece). I love getting the local knowledge on a place and hearing all about the history. Toledo is famed for its marzipan (which I sampled) and for it's steelworks (which I didn't). I know my dad would have been in heaven with all the knife shops in hundreds of different styles. 
Toledo was built on a rock and has a natural river as a moat.  It was the capital of Spain until a king moved it to madrid in the 1700s. Up until 1492 Christians, Muslims and Jewish people lived in harmony and they all collaborated in designing the buildings and built many churches (heaps and heaps of them where perhaps the phrase holy Toledo comes from). 
 We were only given 45min to look around on our own which wasn't enough but I knew that was a drawback of going on a tour. 
Overall Madrid is quite dirty, smelly and graffitied which is sad as it has some lovely buildings and a rich history which is spoiled by the litter on and around the monuments. 
The tour is ok. The people are nice and it is mainly Aussies and Americans. The group is way too big though. We spend ten minutes everywhere just doing head counts or taking the roll. I don't envy our tour leader at all. Give me as many kids in a fixed location and I'd rather that!
How wonderful the weather is here!!!  I am finally wearing shorts and sleeveless tops!!!  It's about 30 degrees which is perfect for me. Also the sun doesn't go down until after 8 and doesn't get light again until 8 am which is weird when you are eating breakfast at 7.15am and its dark outside. Also the tour de spain finished here (or just a leg of it I'm not sure) and I saw the palateon come round the corner on my way to the city park. It's huge!!!!!  And very pretty with a lake in the middle and fountains and winding paths everywhere. There are so many people spending their leisure and family time here that it's a reminder that you are in a big city and people who live here don't have backyards. In some places it is crowded and touristy and in others almost deserted - it really is huge - think central park in new York. In the evening I explored the musee del prado and saw spain's most famous historical artist - El Greco. We'd seen one of his paintings earlier in Toledo that was lovely (hundreds of years old). Having filled up on religious artwork I wet out for dinner with two ladies from the tour group then crashed that night. 6am wake up call - grrr to take us to cordoba. 
And I have a photo to prove that the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains (and thankfully only when we were on the bus). 
Unfortunately wifi is hard to come by and nearly impossible to be free in Europe (which is the opposite to what I was told). So as I'm doing this on my phone you might get a huge blog then none for days. Sorry. 
Interesting facts about Spain:
It is law that every thing must close on a Sunday (about 5% are allowed to stay open. 
They are the worlds largest supplier of olive oil (maybe you did know that or you certainly would if you saw the oceans of olive trees going as far as the eye can see in every direction).
The universities here are free!  Subsidized by the spanish government they only pay an application fee of €100 per year. 
Their government is like England. They have a king but he has no real power. 
Eeek! I can't think of any more. I learnt so many cool things today and I've forgotten them all. (I really need to remember to write this stuff down). 

Thanks for all the comments. It's really nice to hear from you. I hope you are happy and healthy. Talk later. 
Kym