Highlights-Madrid (actually Alcalá de Henares)

I went to Alcalá de Henares, which has the distinction of being the first “university town” in Europe (that is, the town was designed around the university). It was originally Universidad Complutense (Complutum, Roman city of good size nearby), but Alcalá lost control of the name when the university was closed (they had issues, but they always start with money) mid-nineteenth century to 1977 (oops!). I toured the Casa de Cervantes, but unlike a similar structure in Valladolid, he wasn’t born there, didn’t live there, and didn’t write anything there. In fact, he never set foot in the house because the structure where people think he was born (iffy) no longer exists. Still, like Lewis and Clark hotels and bingo parlors in Idaho and Montana, the name Cervantes is a guaranteed tourist draw. It worked on me! The Roman ruins, mostly ruined foundations with a few walls, are located outside of the town. Apparently even the Romans preferred the suburbs.