ry palace just inside the walls. The
town and the lodging were lovely. I
hosted a small celebration of our
first day ending marvellously with
my stash of Johnnie Walker Black in
Room 14 (recommended), the likes of
Mary Hopkins singing “Those were
the days my friend, we thought they
would never end …” on my iPhone.
We joked about the different pro-
nunciations and meanings of words
in our supposedly common language.
At first is it was highbrow (piscatory
rights vs. water rights), then neutral
(flat vs. apartment) or moto related
(trunk vs. top box), but as the alco-
hol flowed it quickly degenerated
(pear-vert vs. purr-vert). The Yanks
(Americans) made fun of Brian from
Glasgow for saying “room” as “ree-
hume” like Stanley Baxter in Parlia-
mo Glasgow (Google it!).
Having had enough, Doctor Leslie
and Brian walked to a nearby square
TRAVERSE 77
where she gratuitously examined
Brian’s feet. Somehow, we regathered
and finished the day with a delicious
dinner at the hotel, which surprising-
ly cost less than our lunch in Segovia
the day before!
Next morning there was time to ex-
plore more of the warren of cobbled
streets around the hotel and a fabu-
lous breakfast before exiting through
the main gate of the city walls. In
many ways, our second day was a per-