Toledo

Day One

5.45am up and running - we stayed overnight at the Post House Hotel at Manchester Airport where we leave our car for the duration. Check in Terminal One 7.15am, excellent BA breakfast OJ, cornflakes, ham croissant, fruit, muffin and coffee. Madrid 12.55pm. Avis to collect our car - a Vauxhall Nova (or Opel Corsa as it is known here!), with no sign that it's a hire car which seems to be the norm now and a good idea for tourists. 27°C - excellent, just how I like it! Get to the Hotel Domenico just outside Toledo at 3pm. It's a lovely hotel, our room is large, comfortable and has a balcony with a fine view of the city. A beer in the hotel bar and a relaxing afternoon despite internal urgings to go and see something! We enjoyed a very good dinner in the hotel restaurant - prawns followed by Toledo-style partridge for me, steak and chips for my husband - we learn from our waitress that the steak is called a solomillo. Neither of us speak much Spanish - despite the tapes that have lain around the house for the past six months. One did actually make it into the car cassette in an attempt to learn something while travelling to and from work but we didn't get past the first side! In any case, the waitress appreciates our abysmal attempts and tries to help us learn more. One excellent wine discovery already - a Manchegan Senorio de Guadianeja Cencibel.

Day Two

Straight to the Hospital de Santa Cruz museum to give El Greco a chance - he's not an artist I've ever really liked, and I'm still not impressed. But we like the huge pennants from the Battle of Lepanto. The museum is extremely hot so we escape out into the sun and wander around the city. The Mudejar architecture and the synagogues are my favourites; the cathedral - not to my taste, but the suspended cardinal's hat is fun. Andrew's highlight - Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

A long lunch at the hotel and a short siesta before driving out to the windmills at Consuegra. It was wonderfully cool on the ridge and we stayed there for a couple of hours at least - for both of us this was a highlight. It is wine harvest and the roads are full of carts taking the grapes to the co-operatives. Another great hotel meal - we really don't need to go out - steak for me "deer shoot with apple mashed" for Andrew, sorbets and (free) lemony grappa-type local liqueurs with coffee.

Day Three

Talavera - our first battlefield. It was difficult to find from the town, even though there is a huge monument there. Over 30°C today! Later in the day we venture back into Toledo and give El Greco one more chance - and he finally succeeds with "The Burial of the Count Orgaz". More Häagen-Dazs - Malibu, a new one to us and very good.

Day Four

Early start to Madrid - it is a Sunday so we hope it won't be too crowded! Parked right outside the Prado - the main reason for coming. After two and a half hours inside we are tired. Lots of wonderful Spanish paintings but I think I liked best the Durer self-portrait. It is another very hot day and we walk into the Retiro Park for a beer. Lots of things going on in the park including a number of chess games. To the Plaza Mayor where the Madrid wine festival is taking place - we tasted one or two and were singularly unimpressed. We had an excellent lunch here, of spanish omelette - cold as usual - and dried ham which was very good. A visit to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum before returning very tired to our hotel and a final excellent meal and bottle of Cencibel.

 Salamanca

Day Five

Took the road to Ávila which passes some interesting looking castles but we didn't stop until we arrived in this ancient town hoping for lunch. Unfortunately we were way too early and had to settle for a beer in the square and a baguette to keep us going on the road! Too hot for travelling without air conditioning! The Gran Hotel in Salamanca is perfectly placed on the corner of the main square. Once settled we went for a walk in the town which we liked immediately. It is a beautiful city and in the late afternoon the light is great for photographs from across the Roman bridge. Evening meal in the small Feudal Restaurant attached to the hotel - more fine food - and a fine bottle of Ribera - Yllera.

Day Six

The Los Arapiles battlefield is reached from Salamanca through tiny villages and seems to have changed little in the intervening years since the battle. Returned to the beautiful Plaza Mayor in Salamanca for a most enjoyable long, relaxing lunch - including another bottle of Yllera which we have developed a taste for! We are well into the Spanish way of life now and a siesta seems very civilised.

Day Seven

Cooler today so we are able to enjoy hot chocolate and churros in the square - very good but we both feel a little sick afterwards.

Haro

Day Eight

Foggy as we drive early out of Salamanca but clearing to another lovely day. We have a picnic lunch at a wonderful Visigothic chapel in the middle of nowhere at Quintanilla de las Vinas, surrounded by mountains its walls decorated with carvings of grapes and geometric designs. Our hotel in Haro is Los Agustinos - a former 13th century convent - and our first move is to relax with a beer in the cloisters. The tourist office is very close so we are able to get some information on vineyards - this being Rioja country. The wine museum is excellent.

Day Nine

Haro is looking a bit the worse for wear - in some areas houses are collapsing! The Bodegas Muga tour is very good and the wine excellent. Our final battlefield is Vitoria where the old bridge is easily found. Temperatures still in the thirties. The meals continue to be very good and we are particularly impressed with the quality of the meat. A specialty dish of pork in a tomato and red pepper sauce was particularly good.

Day Ten

A tiring day of touring. We tried to visit the Puella Bodegas which we found after a tortuous route through the village but no signs of life except a dog. Thankfully regaining the road we drove to the hilltop town of Laguaria - very attractive setting but I found the very narrow streets and high walls claustrophobic. We drove on down the N111 to Viguera for fine views back up the steep-sided valley and, after a roadside lunch, to Enciso to see the famous dinosaur footprints. We were so tired by this point that we couldn't walk to what might be more impressive manifestations - the ones we saw were not particularly inspiring. The drive was picturesque, though - another deep valley in fantastic cliffs which have caves with windows and doors set into them. The rock was deepest pink, almost red, as the sun went down.

Day Eleven

After yesterday we decided not to do too much so drove first up to the Balcon de la Rioja but too hazy for good views - it's probably better in winter on a colder, clearer day. We eventually had a picnic lunch at the Roman bridge at Cihuri, a beautiful three-arched structure. Our final visit for the day was to Sajazarra, primarily for the castle but we discovered that the village itself is reason enough to come here and we strolled around for quite a while. In one area near the river there is a "street" of small houses - cut into the rock face on one side. Families were roasting huge quantities of red peppers on braziers outside. Our evening meal was at Beethoven II - excellent gambas a la plancha and cordero asado with a fine Rioja Reserva from Bodegas Bilbao in Haro.

Segovia

Day Twelve

Via the Ribera valley, buying Ribera along the way and picnic-lunching in the hilltop town of Haza. Almost deserted apart from building workers - a lot of building being done - and a garrulous old man who was very proud of his village. Segovia is another beautiful city and we have a three roomed "suite" in the Hotel Los Linajes with balcony. The first church we saw - St Esteban, right - was one of the loveliest with its beautiful Romanesque arches. The aqueduct is magnificent and very difficult to do justice to in a photograph. The restaurant Jose Maria served marvellous suckling pig and lamb, and an astonishingly good Rueda Sauvignon Blanc - this as an aperitif courtesy of the restaurant - we drank Ribera with the meal.

Day Thirteen

Iglesia de la Vera Cruz - a marvellous Romanesque church associated with the Knights Templar. It is only small but the interior is beautiful and has a central upper storey where the knights would meet. We can see this church from our hotel room balcony where we have lunch - we can also see into the cloisters of a monastery and are intrigued by an exercise bike which, unfortunately, we never see in use. We have discovered Manchegan cheese which is strong and nutty. More meat at the Restaurant Mescon Mayor - suckling pig and lamb with a Ribera del Duero - we can't get enough of this either! Here the bottle of liqueur is left on the table - and they give free little pots too!

Day Fourteen

Our final full day and it is very hot. We decide we had better go to El Escorial but wish we hadn't - it is vast, cavernous and the most interesting part was the wonderful wooden acting going on for some film unit in the courtyard. That's probably a bit unfair as the tombs are rather magnificent and, although the basilica was very dark, the family sculpture groups are well worth seeing. Unfortunately, one room we would have been very interested in - the Gallery of Battles - was closed. We had great difficulty in finding our way back to the road to Haro - we had wanted to get to a viewpoint to see El Escorial from a distance but two attempts at the traffic and one-way system defeated us - but eventually were once more sitting on our cool balcony enjoying a late lunch. A lazy afternoon followed by a final meal at the Mescon Mayor - although we wish we had another evening to revisit the Jose Maria too!

We really enjoyed the food and wine in Spain. All in all it's been a wonderful holiday and tempting to return to revisit favourite places and those we couldn't get to this time around.