Program 459: Getting Around Spain; Madrid Side Trips; Andalucian Style

Celebrate Spain's National Day with us as we learn about recent improvements to the country's high-speed passenger trains and freeways, then listen in as tour guides from Madrid, Sevilla, and Navarre answer questions and recommend memorable side trips from the capital. And hear why, in the south of Spain, it always feels like there's a party breaking out just around the corner.

• Amanda Buttinger, tour guide based in Madrid
• Federico García Barroso, tour guide based in Madrid
• Jorge Román, tour guide based in Madrid
• Francisco Glaría, tour guide based in Pamplona, Spain
• Concepción Delgado, tour guide based in Seville, Spain

• Passengers can book tickets for Spain's AVE high speed trains from the national rail operator RENFE, or from consolidator Rail Europe.
• Jorge recommends side trips in central Spain to medieval Toledo, the castle and monastery at El Escorial, Salamanca, Segovia, and Avila. 
• A recipe for making the "yemas de Santa Teresa,"a popular egg yolk pastry baked by the nuns of Avila.
• You can see windmills in La Mancha near the town of Consuegra.
• El País discusses (in English) the political dilemma posed by Spain's Valley of the Fallen monument.
• English-language pages to the Andalucía tourism guide.
• Rick writes how he finds life in Seville to be like a perpetual celebration.