After a short flight, we arrived in Madrid, attractive at first blush, at least where we are staying, right next to the Prado, www.museodelprado.es. (Our taxi driver misheard us and almost took us to the Hotel Rex instead of the Hotel Ritz. Will have to work on our English.)

Since it was open today and closed tomorrow (free admission too, no less), we saunter over after unpacking and spent two incredible hours seeing some of the world’s greatest art, including Las Meninas, which as Michelin says, “once seen, never forgotten.”

We are now joining up with the Advocates’ Society trip which starts here today with a reception and a tapas dinner.

The reception on the Ritz terrace was fun, the dinner at El Lacon, www.mesonellacon.com, another matter altogether and if coming to Madrid, there must be a thousand better tapas bars although it was reasonably close to the hotel.