I may have to become a vegetarian in Spain ...

Not to jump to conclusions, but I'm not loving Spanish food.

Ham, ham, ham. And it's strange ham. It's thin and dry with lots of fat ... Iberian ham or something like that. Today we had "sandwiches" in the Prado cafe. Mine was salami (oddly bright red) with tomato on a baquette. Bill's was ham on a baguette. No mayonnaise, no mustard. Just hard bread and a bit of meat. It was rather pitiful.

At 8 o'clock, we went to a restaurant down the street from our hotel which Bill discovered this morning. He befriended the owner-chef, who was thrilled when we returned for dinner. We ordered a prix fixe but the chef kept adding things to our meal (and delivering them in person) until we had eaten so much we felt sick. (I loved the salad and the bean stew, as long as I picked all the strange meat, fat and bone out of it, but my entree was something called "weakfish." Why I ordered this, I do not know. Judging from the bone structure, I think it was really eel. In a brown sauce with peas and hard-boiled eggs. As I said, I think I'm going to become a vegan.)

Finalement ... flan. We hate it. So look at the dessert! It was flan in every possible gelatinous manifestation. The whole platter was wiggling globbily and drenched in honey. The only reason we were able to eat any of it (as the chef hovered over us, watching) was because we had already polished off a lovely bottle of rose.

I confess that I'm beginning to be a bit more sympathetic to the desperate people who break down and visit one of the many McDonald's and Burger Kings around town. Madrid even has a Kentucky Fried Chicken ...