The last leg...

Royal Palace by night
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27/12/05

We reach the final leg of our tour and it was absolutely freezing!  We arrived quite late at night so we went for a walk to take in Madrid by night, they had the most amazing Christmas decorations!  We spent a few hours walking around and found somewhere to eat and then headed back to the hotel ready for our tour to the Royal Palace the following day.

28/12/05

Today we had a jam packed schedule, we went for a tour of the Royal Palace, which is quite interesting, although the colour schemes and decor have much to be desired it was an absolutely massive palace and we didn't even see the whole thing.  We couldn't use flash cameras in there and most of the rooms were quite dark so I didn't get any good photos.

Madrid Christmas Lights
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Next we were off to the Valley of the Fallen and the Franco Monument which has awesome views as it is very high up.  The monument is an underground church and tomb topped with a 500 foot stone cross, which can be seen from a distance of 30 miles. Although supposedly honoring all the dead in the Spanish Civil war, only two names are commemorated, those of General Francisco Franco and of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange (and safely dead before the mausoleum was started). Most critics see this gargantuan memorial, not as a mode of post-civil war reconciliation, but rather of Fascist theatricality.

Madrid Christmas Lights
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Tonight we start in the Hotel bar before heading out for a massive Tapas dinner, another fellow Contikian and I share a massive share platter of different meats (much to Peta's disgust being a Vegetarian)..  Nect we are off to find the nightlife in Madrid, we ended up at a nightclub called the Royal Palace - very different from the one we visited that morning.  Was a very massive nightclub with about 6 different rooms playing different music.  Most of us finally called it a night at 4am, except Peta, I think she stumble in at about 6:30am - god love her passion for nightclubs....

Royal Palace Cathedral
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29/12/05

Today we slept through breakfast and the last chance we had to say good-bye to the tour group.  We finally get up and make it to the airport for our flight back to London.