Farewell Amelie

Monday 23 September
Today we farewelled Amelie. She followed our directions to the Peugeot lease car return depot at the Madrid airport to a tee, so whilst still haunted by those endless ‘BARRE ‘ signs she took us to, and the constant deviations from the major roads in order to apparently save us 2 mins of travel time we have probably forgiven her as her performance in Spain, predominately on the excellent freeway system has been almost flawless. The return of the car was as easy as the collection and 10 mins later we were in the courtesy car being dropped of at the nearby airport metro station. We meandered back to the delightful Sucre cafe and enjoyed some real food, Lady P had a large plate of salad and tuna, like we're  used to eating often but have had only rarely since we left Oz, and Flashy enjoyed a pulled pork roll and coleslaw.

Not really Spanish you may say but we are tiring of bread and potatoes so anything green or crunchy (viz  coleslaw) is very welcome. We spend the next couple of hours in the Prado Museum, a true cultural experience no less, and marvel at the craftsmen that were the masters of old, before heading uptown again for a drink in Flashy's favourite people watching bar and a final browse of the Madrid shops for Lady P. Stop in at Mercador in the city for some smoked salmon and  cream cheese for dinner and consider some Spanish red onion would be the perfect accompaniment. You guessed it! In the whole of the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket there was not a Spanish red onion to be found. Back home to polish off the leftovers, wine, cheese and chocolate.