[MB.]

As dawn breaks in southern Italy, Alaska & Willam are first to depart the Pit Stop.



All teams arrive at the airport in the order they finished the previous leg, and manage to all board the next available flight out of Naples, putting the seven remaining teams on an equal playing field. Kelly, who is beginning to feel the exhausting effects of the race, tries to get some sleep on the plane.

Upon arrival in Madrid, the teams travel by taxi to the monastery, with many of the queens speculating as to what the secret cookies could be. "If there are no drugs involved, I’ll be highly disappointed," Willam says rather firmly. Alaska reminds her that they are travelling to a nun’s convent, and that uncovering an illegal narcotics ring operating from inside a nunnery would be an unlikely task for the producers of The Amazing Race to assign the teams.

Indeed, there are no drugs involved in the task, unless you happen to be addicted to shortbread biscuits. Jasmine & Kennedy are the first team to arrive at the plaza where the monastery is located, followed by Mayhem & Morgan, but both teams spend several minutes wandering aimlessly around the outside of the building, unsure as to how they are supposed to order cookies from inside. The rest of the teams then quickly show up, and it is Jinkx & Dela who find the hidden alleyway where the cookie-ordering window is located. Dela orders the cookies for her team, and a nun’s hand appears from the dark to hand them their next clue.



Tammie, proficient in the Spanish language as she is, notices a sign which says that the window closes at one o’clock, as this is when the nuns go for siesta. Rather than making them want to hurry (the teams arrived in Madrid late-morning), Kelly suggests that they both go for a siesta as well. While Team Brown Bacon find a spare room in the monastery to have nap, the other teams collect their cookies and their clues. For the Detour, Jinkx & Dela, Bunny & Coco and Sasha & Shea decide to Find the Note, while Alaska & Willam, Jasmine & Kennedy and Mayhem & Morgan choose to Find the Net. Kelly & Tammie, who opted to Find a Bed for the afternoon, eventually wake up and, feeling somewhat energised, head to the football stadium.

Despite the mental image of drag queens taking penalties in one of the world’s most famous football grounds being one that could strike fear into the hearts of sports fans and homosexuals alike, Alaska & Willam end up being quite good at the Detour (I won’t repeat any of Willam’s comments during the task, as I’ve already written enough balls puns for one game). Mayhem & Morgan also get the hang of it, or at least they do eventually after Mayhem’s boot comes flying off and it collides with the goalkeeper’s face. Jasmine & Kennedy do not find the challenge coming as naturally to them; although Kennedy manages to score a few to begin with, Jasmine isn’t able to connect, and ends up wheezing in all possible directions while Kennedy does most of the hard work.