Madrid to Soria

Breakfast was earlier than usual this morning. Roger and Gayle wanted to leave for the airport with plenty of time to catch their 11:15 flight. We saw them off then went back to our room to pack. We are headed towards France on the last phase of our trip. At 11 o’clock Duke and I took a cab to the bus station. We took a long distance bus to the town of Soria. Soria is about 140 miles northeast of Madrid.

In Soria our plan was to pick up a rental car. We knew we would have to wait until 4pm when everything including the rental car office would reopen after lunch. So we found a bar and had coffee and Spanish tortilla while we waited. We also walked a bit and saw the local bull ring.

We finally got the car just as it started to rain heavily. We drove to the Parador where we are staying and took naps then enjoyed our welcome drinks. Now that we no longer have travel companions there will probably be no more card playing!

We decided to have dinner at the Parador. Duke had Bacalao and I had Merluza. We always avoid Bacalao because that is the name for salted cod. We’ve tried salted cod many times and you just can’t make it good! But recently we found out that you can also get fresh Bacalao. Duke’s was very good.

Merluza is the fish called hake. The Merluza was served with baby eels and shrimp. It was excellent.

For desert we had what the menu billed as orange desert. It was an orange sponge cake with orange ice cream and sauce. It was perfect to share.