Escorial...we meet again....

It's time for me to catch up on my blog posts and update all the wonderful things we've been up to.

When our California friends came to town, we showed them around Madrid. It's always fun to see your city through an outsider's eyes. I take for granted how beautiful Puerta del Sol can be.



Here's one of the Royal Palace and a statue of Felipe IV.



I felt those were worth noticing. In other news, we were able to convince our out-of-town friends to travel up to Escorial-this time, to enter the monastery! Remember that the last time we endeavored to make this trip, we were held hostage in a poorly-runned restaurant where it took us hours to receive our meal, only to exit the establishment once the monastery was closed for the day. This time, we planned ahead, took bagged lunches and went straight through the entrance! It was a nicer day, so I have added some photos.



We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but I was able to sneak a few out the windows, which looked upon cultivated gardens and beautiful mountains.



Escorial is a small town centered around the palace/monastery known as San Lorenzo de Escorial. In the lower floors of the palace is the Royal Parthenon-an interior chamber made of marble where 400 years of Spanish kings and queens line the walls in their tombs. As you tour through the stone-walled palace, you enter a black-marble corridor that takes you downstairs to the mausoleum. There are dimly-lit chandeliers down the steps, which makes the whole journey even more ominous. The tombs of the kings lie on the left of the altar and the queens are on the right. Of course, I was not allowed to take pictures in this area, but I found one online. It's not the best quality photo, but you can see how the tombs are staked up along the sides of the room.



It was a humbling experience being inside this room among the remains of the most powerful Spanish rulers of the last several centuries. When we left this chamber, we encountered even more tombs, but they were for the princes and princesses. One room contained a large white marble polygonal tomb known as La Tarta. This is where all the royal children and infants are buried. Once again, I was not able to take a photo, but here's a picture I found online.



After seeing these tombs, I was certain that the tour was completed; apparently, there's much more to the palace. Near the end of the walk, there is a huge library with frescoed ceilings depicting the liberal arts. At the end of the library is a Ptolemaic sphere, which shows the assumed orbits of the planets around the earth. Here's a photo from online.



Mission accomplished! We were finally able to tour through the palace and it was well worth the wait! I highly recommend visiting San Lorenzo if you ever travel to Madrid; it's an awesome historical edifice a quick hour away. Also, if you get too depressed after visiting all the tombs, just head back into the capital for some churros.