Spain, Madrid - Escorial (10/25)
Today we left Madrid and journeyed to Escorial.
Checkout time for our apartment was 11AM and since the bus trip was supposed to take only 1 hour, we had breakfast and went for a walk in the Parque de el Retiro, a park just adjacent to the Prado. A very pleasant way to start the day with bright sunshine and trees starting to color up.
After returning to our apartment we finished our packing, saddled up with our packs, closed up the apartment, and headed for the bus station, about 3km away. Our walk to the bus terminal took us through a busy retail center that we'd not seen before. Along the way we heard many street musicians including 3 men singing with beautiful tenor voices.
At the bus station it was a bit confusing where to catch the bus. We asked someone and it turned out we needed to go underground. So, down into the earth we headed. After a couple more queries for help we were directed to the proper gate where we queued up for the bus. Once loading began we moved right along. However, the bus filled up just ahead of us so we had to wait for the next one, a wait of about 15 minutes.
Once aboard it was an uneventful ride to San Lorenzo de el Escorial. So uneventful we both nodded off.
After checking into our hotel we set off to visit the Real Monastery.
What a beauty!
It was way more than a monastery as it was the historical residence of the king of Spain. As a consequence, it's a very grand building, pretty pedestrian, but big, on the outside but resplendent on the inside. We saw tiled walls, lots of gilt, a spectacular basilica, walls hung with paintings by famous and not so famous renaissance artists, and an amazing crypt.
Our local representative brought us our packet of materials and went over the routes with us before sending us off to dinner and to rustle up some food for lunch tomorrow, our first hike.
Highlight video
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