Europe and Japan Tour

Left, Prado courtyard, Madrid

In mid September myself, Brett and his friend Greg left Australia for five weeks to visit Spain, Romania and Japan. A friend in Romania announced he was going to get married in early October this year, Brett also wanted to catch up with friends in Japan and we wanted to also see another part of Europe. We left Greg in Romania as he wanted to check out the birds of the Danube delta, he had an extra two weeks in Romania before leaving to work in the UK. As a horticulture student I wanted to see the gardens. Within Spain we went to Madrid, Granada and Barcelona.

Madrid is a very livable, beautiful and dynamic city. Plenty of buses and good train system and easy to cycle. Madrid Botanic Gardens looked a bit tired but had some fabulous hedges
Left El Retiro, Monument to Alfonso XII
Left 'Cloud' pruning, Plaza del Parterre
The Jardines del Buen Retiro is a very special garden which we visited late in the afternoon. We didn't have nearly enough time to properly see this garden, we started at the main entrance near the Plaza de le Independencia and followed Av de Mejico to the lake and monument to Alfonso XII turned right at Paseo del Paraguay past the Plaza del Parterre.
El Retiro, fountain detail