Shopping-Train-Organization

Shopping in Madrid is excellent, the shoes & leather are to die for, & it's all very close to our hotel (OMG). Only browsing today getting the lay of the land for when we return!! The Spanish women know how to dress, as good as the Italians. Thus the excellent shopping, too bad the Euro is so high to our $.  For my train friends & Family, the AVE is fabulous. We are travelling at 280-300km, it feels like 90km. The continuous rail is so smooth, so quiet, no jerking & very little sway. The service on the train is excellent with a 4 course lunch, included in our ticket. Mark wants me to mention there is complimentary wine, beer, spirits with lunch (important for some to know this).  Oh and the scenery is beautiful. The terrain is very arid but lots of green with red soil, lots of wind mills & quaint little villages with farms. The 3 hour ride to Barcelona is going too fast. I must say the Spainish are very well organized, making it easy to to navigate unknown territory for us tourists. So far we really like Spain.