ok. so we are fast running out of time in madrid, so shopping took over when places of interest ran out......we went to plaza mayor after breakfast, location of many infamous inquisition trials......then on to royal palace. rebuilt by phillipe v, who happened to be grandson of louis xiv..it is somewhat similar to versailles.....many grandrooms....of interest was the stradivarius suite of 4 instruments built to be played together.......the ceilings were also very nice..not too overdone.....lunch in the palace ´lunchroom´´ rachel bought what she thought was a vegetable sandwich, which turned out to be potato & pea salad sandwich with tunafish or fake crab added to it......who can tell these things at first glance.....we played the friday 5 game.......name your five most favorite foods.....mine are shrimp, red raspberries, smoked salmon, tangerines, and french fries.....not necessarily in that order....if i could go for 10 i would add olives, goat cheese, little kings beer, taboulleh, and marinated artichoke hearts.......there may be more, but they do not come to mind right now......

i have also come to some conclusions about what i do not like.....i really do not like red wine.....i poured the rest of a bottle down the drain tonight because it was just so dry to the point of dehydration.......i did go the grocery in the basement of el cortes ingles in search of the wine we had last night....dona beatriz, a wonderful white..of course, i could only find something from the region, not from the exact vintnor...i also bought a bottle of randon red from riajho (sp?) and several cans of olives...i really love pickled things and these jars have both green and black olives, onions, and capers......wonderful........