Now returned to the royal family, it is used by official guests when they are visiting Madrid. When no one is staying, it opens to the public 10.30am-5pm from Monday to Saturday, until 6pm in summer, and 10am-1.40pm on Sundays, from 9.30am in summer (fax 00 34 913 761 585); admission €5 (£3.60). Inside is a collection of tapestries, many of them based on the cartoons of Goya. El Pardo is still surrounded by the oak forest in which the royal family used to hunt.
A NEW WORLD PALACEThe Palacio del Almirante, or Palace of the Admiral, at Cuesta del Almirante 153 in Cuzco, Peru (00 51 84 23 7380), was built soon after the conquistadores arrived, and is one of the most impressive colonial buildings in the city. It takes its name from Admiral Francisco Alderete Maldonado, who lived in the house for a number of years until his death in 1643. It then became home to the archbishop and the viceroy of Peru, was briefly Government House and is now part of the national university and home of the Inca Museum. It contains a collection of ceramics and other artefacts, and opens 8am-5pm from Monday to Friday, and 9am-5pm on Saturdays Admission 10 soles (£1.60).. Therapy, by its very definition, is meant to be therapeutic: the restoration of mind and body administered by gentle healing hands.
Whisper the word at a meditative pitch to conjure images of essential oils, massage and gentle soul-probing on soft cushions. But as I signed in for a thalassotherapy session on a chilly morning in the French coastal resort of Biarritz, it became apparent that somewhere along the line the "feel better" factor had got lost in translation. You should be quick, quick!" she added in French, before doing a sharp about-turn across reception with a precision that could not have been easy in a pair of rubber clogs. Thalassotherapy (treatment with sea-water products) has a long tradition in this part of France and was first taken up by the Greeks along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. By the 1800s Euripides' ancient revelation that "the sea cures the maladies of man" had once again become fashionable.
