"...I need no stars to guide me...I need no sun to shine..."

                                       

                                     

                                     

After lunch and a couple of hours at the Prado I conned Zok into taking me to the gardens of El Retiro.

There is a man made lake with rowboats that can be rented by the hour. I knew that Zok had been a coxwan for a rowing team, but somehow I didn't think he would be such an expert rower. I felt pretty smug as we darted around the lake from Roman columns to grand square, past the Sphinx and over to watch the rather large fish leap from the water.

All the statues, buildings and sculpted gardens seem strange until I read that the park was only for royalty, used throughout the 17 th, century, open to the public in 1868.

The largest monument on the lake is 'Monument to Alfonso XII'.

But the lake was just the beginning of our adventure.