El Escorial

Last Saturday we decided to visit San Lorenzo de El Escorial. An hour's train ride from Madrid to the Northwest, this is the site of a Royal Monastery. That is, it is a monastery, a historical residence of the Kings of Spain, and a museum. All of the royalty of Spain is buried here and it is definitely worth visiting --yes, even in December, with dreadful cold, fog, and drizzle! I imagine that in the Spring it must be so beautiful...like in the picture below which was not taken by us, but gives you a better idea of what it looks like:



Here is another one off google, that I just love:

Here we are (left) walking through the streets --it was SO cold!

We quickly made our way to the monastery because the weather was almost unbearable.

Once inside, we first saw the typical rooms of tapestries (never been a big fan, although I realize they must have taken so long to make!). Then we saw various rooms of religious art, lots of little rooms, hallways, stairwells (we felt like we were in a laborynth) and neat courtyards.

We also saw the bed and room where Philip II died. He was really the one who built El Escorial. The bed is all faded and tattered, but still retains some of the royal elegance of those times. This made me reflect on the fact that now a days we, thanks to modernity, live better than the kings of the 16th century. I mean, central heating, electricity, antibiotics, cell phones, airplanes, internet! hahaha....can't say I envy even the kings of Spain :)

El Escorial though is different from Toledo. The Monastery is the place to visit in Escorial, but the rest of the town is not as picturesque as Toledo, in my opinion. For sure, the pantheon of the kings is the best room in the place: built completely of marble (green/deep red colors) one walks down a narrow stair corridor and it opens up to this majestic room with a dome. There before you are some thirty tombs each in their niche carved into the wall, all uniform in style only differing in the names "Felipe II, Rex" one says; another "Isabella, Regina". One is left in a state of awe in this room, perhaps because it is a palpable example of the concentration of history, power, and legacy found there. In a sense, the identity of Spain was forged by these figures and here they are all buried, a piece of the past. By the way, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the Monastery, but below is another pic I found online of the Pantheon of the Kings:

 

The Basilica, along with the pantheons to the Kings and the Infantes, was awesome. The basilica has one feature that stands out in my mind: the enormous dome is completely bare. This is rather rare (at least I've never seen one). Normally they are filled with frescos and artwork, but not this one: it was made of solid stone with a few windows and I loved the simplicity of it. The dome and the enormous columns of the main naive contrasted exquisitely with the very ornate and tasteful altarpiece and imposing stairs leading up to the altar. Again, courtesy of the internet, here are some pics I found of the interior of the basilica:

The pictures below are inside the monastery, in the courtyard with the facade of the Basilica in the background.

Last, but certainly not least, we made our way up the stairs to the Library. We almost forewent this room because we were all kind of tired and cold, and a little sick of hauling our mega-stroller up and down stairs, but I'm glad we decided to make one last effort to see it. I've never seen a Library that really captures the Renaissance like this one:

After the library, it was down the long hill to the train station and by 4pm we were on our way home to Madrid again.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is just a week away!!! The kids are so excited and this weekend we hope to get a few decorations to get us in the spirit too. Antonio and Alejandra have learned several Christmas Carols at school and they happily croon their little tunes around the apartment. It's super cute!! The next post will include a link to a youtube video with them strutting their carols!!