For our last morning in Madrid we went to the Parque Retiro, the last major thing on our list for this city. It is a lovely park, comparable to New York's Central Park. It seems like a good thing to have such a place of tranquility in the midst of a bustling city. We bought a few pastries from the shop next to our hotel before boarding the bus. The pastries here are great! but one of these, an empanada bonito, was not so good - it was filled with tuna and other unexpected spices.
On our way to Valencia we stopped in the small old Moorish town of Alarcón. It has only 215 residents and an old castle that has been converted into a Parador where tourists can spend the night. It was a beautiful little town with white walls, red roofs, and dried-up palm branches in many windows, remainders from the celebration of Corpus Christi. Driving through the countryside, scattered with white-walled towns, ancient ruins, and orchards of olive trees, was beautiful. We were in the area of Spain known as Catille-la Mancha, which is where much of Cervantes' don Quixote takes place.
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