Madrid, I love you!
Dress fairly nicely and you can hit the bars more or less straight from the plane... When I turned 50 back in February we couldn't go away like we did last year for Mr Robot as the cattery was closed that month. (The Urchins are nervy little things, being ex-ferals, and so always go to the same cattery to avoid too much distress.) February's a bit rubbish weather-wise anyhow, so we booked time off (and cattery space for the mogs) in April and went away then instead. Our destination? Plasencia, in Spain! I see that blank expression. That's okay, it's a town in Extremadura, a region less visited by British travellers. It's not even on the main AVE high-speed rail line. The main reason I picked it is because I love Spain's paradores, the state-owned luxury hotels made in many cases from converting heritage buildings. The one in Plasencia was once a monastery, and is right in the heart of the town. First we had to get there. This meant an evening flight to Madrid.
