This trip was in Nov. 04. We started in Madrid and covered Toledo; Barcelona and Montserrat, then atarted on a cruise which covered: Montblanc, Poblet, Cadiz, Gibraltor, Morocco, Madiera, Lanzarote and St. Maartin. (See links below.)
In Madrid we stayed at the Villa Real Hotel. It was a good central location and a lovely old building. The rooms had wood floors, king size beds; even robes and slippers. We toured the Royal Palace (at right), which is used by the Royal family only on special occasions. It has more rooms than any other palace in Europe. The Prado Art Museum (below) features over 3000 paintings including those by Velazques, Bosch and Goya. While in Madrid we also saw a special Gaugin art exhibit.
The tile pattern at the left was taken from a photo of a stone wall in Montserrat.