Leaving Lisbon about 9:30 we arrived at a station,—Baylo,—where we should have changed cars. There the train remained some minutes and during the wait we purchased two bottles of wine and four loaves of bread. The train moved slowly off, so being hungry, we settled comfortably back into our seats and soon fell to.
As we were preparing to take our afternoon smoke, the conductor came around to collect the tickets. On looking at ours he told us we were on the wrong train. By this time we were some twenty-five miles from Baylo.
At the next station we were put off by the conductor, and from signs and words obtained from a Portuguese-English conversation book, we learned that we would have to remain in that forsaken spot till 11:30 that night. It was then three o'clock in the afternoon. On discovering the costly mistake, we both cursed our ill luck. The worst of it was, we only had between us three hundred rois, thirty cents in Uncle Sam's coin.
Two days later found us in Madrid, tired, dusty and hungry. We soon found a suitable hotel and made ourselves comfortable.
It would be utterly impossible for me to write of all the things of interest which we saw while in Madrid, the capital of Spain. The first day there we spent in resting, but after that we were on the go from morning till night, for we were out to see all there was to be seen.
We visited the Royal Palace, which is said to be next in grandeur to the Czar's Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. This palace is superb in architecture and is magnificently furnished. The royal stables contain hundreds of beautiful horses of all description and carriages of every style. The most interesting part of the palace is the Royal Armory, in which we saw the old but well preserved armor of Christopher Columbus and the war implements and armor of Charles V. In this armory the weapons of all the great Spanish warriors are preserved, always carefully guarded.
The Art Gallery of Madrid is second to none. There are collected the masterpieces of the world's greatest artists, not only of Spain, but of other countries.
The arena for the bull fights is most handsomely constructed, and there we had the pleasure of witnessing our second bull fight. These fights are held every Sunday, and quite often on Wednesdays. At this particular fight there were killed three horses and several bulls. It was far more cruel than the fight we had witnessed at Lisbon.
We made Madrid our headquarters while in Spain and took excursions out to Toledo, the Escurial, Bungos and Granada. These places proved of as much interest to us as did Madrid.
In Madrid the main thoroughfares are kept surprisingly clean, while the back streets are filthy. Several nights we spent theatre-going and saw some of Spain's celebrities.