Our journey from Dubrivnik to Mardrid was uneventful. Our toothpaste, shaving foam and moisturizer were all confiscated by security. I had several packets of our favourite wafer biscuits which escaped the cull. Apparently terrorists can develop deadly substances to mimic toothpaste but are incapable of turning their minds to producing explosive biscuits. 

We picked up our car in Madrid but that's when the problems started. I had offline maps loaded on two different GPS software apps. However, when I entered our destination one said it couldn't plot a route as there was no map available, the other stubbornly insisted that I was still in Dubrovnik.  On top of that Android Auto was playing up. I spent the best part of an hour in the car desperately trying to make  it all work. We had rather rashly refused Hertz's offer to enable GPS in the car we had chosen to rent mainly on the grouds of extortinate cost. It was increasingly looking like a bad decision.

After a considerable amount of time listening to me curse phone GPS systems Gill very quietly said. ' Couldn't we just get GPS in the car." She managed to extract the Hertz man from his office to come and sort out the problem. We learned at this point that our car was not, and could not, be GPS enabled. However he did have a suitable car available. Yes it was an Audi in a higher price bracket and we would have to pay more but the engine was much more efficient than the seemingly gas guzzling model we had chosen. We would save money in petrol he said. At this point we were both so tired, dejected and frustrated that we would probably have paid for a Bugatti Veyron if it just had GPS that allowed us to escape from this subterranean nightmare into daylight and the open road.

He returned to say that the Audi he thought was available was not returned but, yes, he did have a BMW and did I like BMW's? He again stressed that while it was in a higher category than our chosen car I would save lots of money because of its fuel efficient engine.I don't think he remembered he had used that carrot once before. We were past caring and I just signed every bit of paper he put in front of me and initialed goodness knows what conditions just to get on the road. To celebrate his successful upselling achievement he asked if I would like some bottled water. I could see all the other customers looking at us wondering why they were not the recipients of such largesse.

He brought us to the magically fuel efficient car. He proudly pointed out that it was new praised its attractive red colour, opened the door and left us to it. I gather the modern term for the driver's position in a car is called the cockpit. I could see why. I have never seen so many knobs, dials switches and displays.  The fact that the vital GPS display, and indeed every other, was in Spanish added to the confusion. Gill was dispatched to Find Mr Hertz who with dazzling speed flicked through endless menus to change the language to English. Now we were good to go.

In the olden days a gear lever was exactly that. Now it's rather like a puzzle you have to solve. There was a button in the side and a button on the back. I eventually worked out the correct sequence that unlocked motion and we edged out of the parking space. The next challenge was finding the exit. I'm sure everyene has at some point had a nightmare in which they drive round a gigantic underground car park desperately trying to find the exit.  We eventually found it after several tries by following a car which looked as if it knew where it was going.  At last daylight was in view. The only thing separating us from freedom was a metal arm impeding our progress. I had no ticket to put in the pay machine and a car drew up behind me preventing any reversing to escape the predicament.  I sat there frozen. This was the last straw. However magically the arm moved upwards and we were out. They obviously had a number plate recognition system although it might have helped had Mr Hertz pointed this out.

The drive to our hotel took about two hours so we were pretty exhausted when we got there. However it lifted our spirits just to have somewhere comfortable to sit and have a glass of wine after an extremely long day. 

The drive to Burgos was a breeze with our super GPS system which guided us faultlessly  even when I made a terrible error at motorway junction and took a wrong exit. We found our hotel next to the cathedral and are currently enjoying a siesta.  We declined to pay 11 euro each to enter the cathedral. I'm not sure Jesus would have approved of charging money to enter a church but I suppose the poverty stricken Vatican needs all the money it can get to pay out the victims of clergy abuse.