El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen, October 12

After a late night, although very delightful, we arose at 6:30, had breakfast and went down before 8 to get a cab to the Plaza Espana where we had signed up to take a tour leaving at 8:44.

Today is October 12, Columbus Day, and a holiday here in Spain. There will be a military parade in front of our hotel starting at 9, so the streets are being closed starting at 7! We wait for awhile and then the doorman tells us to walk up the hill, equal to about two long city blocks, and he successfully gets us a cab. Another couple from our tour who are going to the same travel company, join us in the cab, and we get there in plenty of time.

 

Photos shows an innermost courtyard

We have an excellent guide, Carmen, who speaks first in Spanish and then in English. I was hoping that my high school and college Spanish might still be with me, but I understood only a few words. She describes the area of Madrid that we are driving through, but I soon fall asleep. When we arrived we had a fairly good walk over to El Escorial. It is a huge palace built by Philip II at the end of the 16th century after he decided that the capital would be in Madrid rather than Toledo. One wing is now used as a university and another wing is used as a monastery.

Philip II designed the general idea of the palace and built it around a cathedral. At age 72, he died in his bedroom in the palace. From his bed he could see the altar of the church and when he looked the other way, he could see his gardens. On the other side of the cathedral was his oldest daughter's bedroom. She was Isabella who later, along with her husband, managed the Netherlands and Flanders. The cathedral was beautiful, but we could not take photos. There was an amazing mausoleum where all of the kings and queens of Spain from Charles I/V on down, Hapsburgs and Bourbons, have been buried. It is an octagonal shaped room with marble caskets stacked about four high. Many additional rooms have other members of the family. No I terror photos allowed.

 

Next we visited the Valley of the Fallen where Franco had soldiers buried who had fought on his side in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's. He created a beautiful memorial. There is a giant cross and a huge basilica, which is only partially consecrated so it would not exceed St. Peter's in The Vatican.

 

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