Madrid & El Escorial

Leaving Ciudad Real and embarking on our travels went pretty smoothly. We have way too many heavy bags, but some how have managed to make it work! I have a ton of updates to relay, but let's start at the begininning of our adventure: in Madrid, for our last few days in Spain. 

We met our friend Ben in Madrid on the 6th of June, and immediately embarked on a whirlwind tour of the city. On Ben's first day in town we saw the Royal Palace, walked all over the historic center of the city, and went to two of the biggest art museums: the Reina Sofia and the Prado. 

Here's Ben and WP in front of the palace. I think this was what they did when I told them to do a "crazy" pose: 

Here are the boys with the Don Quixote and Sancho Panza statue in Plaza España:

And me and Ben in Plaza Mayor: 

I think this was taken in the elevator in the Reina Sofia museum. I'm not sure why they have such serious faces. Art is a serious business?  

On our first night in Madrid we met up with our friend Lucas (Spanish-American friend who lives in Madrid) and we all went out to one of our favorite restaurants in the La Latina neighborhood, Naia Bistro. It was great to get to see Lucas once more before leaving Spain, and he even took some of our extra English-language books off our hands so we could get closer to EasyJet's draconian weight limit for our flight to Rome.  Here's a photo of Lucas and WP in the apartment rental we stayed in for two nights: 

On our second day hanging out with Ben, we took a day trip from Madrid up to the town of El Escorial, about a ninety-minute train ride from Madrid. El Escorial houses a historical palace/monastery complex of the Kings of Spain, and is a short bus ride away from El Valle de los Caídos (the Valley of the Fallen, a controversial Franco-era monument to the deaths of the Spanish Civil War). 

In the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, the biggest thing to see is the Royal Monastery; the gigantic complex built by King Philip II, the son of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, and the great-grandson of Isabella and Ferdinand (the Spanish monarchs who funded Columbus on his first trip to the New World after recapturing Granada in 1492, the last remaining Muslim kingdom within what is now Spain). The Royal Monastery was the place where Philip ruled the vast Spanish Empire (from Latin America to the Philippines, discovered and conquered by Spanish explorers during his reign, and named after him), containing a huge basilica, library, tombs of the Hapsburg monarchs of Spain, art galleries, and a whole bunch of other rooms and halls. It was a pretty intense walking tour throughout the building over what felt like several miles of winding passageways and staircases, and we got to see some beautiful art, including some amazing original maps from the 1500s showing Spain's idea of what the world looked like back then (Spoiler Alert: they had a lot to learn about the shape of California back then). I think we all particularly enjoyed the library, which has 40,000 books and several old globes. Here's Ben out in front of the complex: 

We weren't allowed to take pictures in most of the building, but one security guard did let me snap this one from inside the building, looking out over the gardens and the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama (Guadarrama mountain range):

In addition to El Escorial, people go to this part of Spain to see El Valle de los Caídos, The Valley of the Fallen.  The Valley of the Fallen is a Basilica and a huge memorial built by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to honor those who died in the Spanish Civil War in which he seized power. Franco apparently claimed that building this monument was a "national act of atonement", but it is very controversial since he built it using convict laborers, many of whom were prisoners from the war on the Republican side (the legitimate government of Spain, which Franco overthrew in the war), and while working on the monument they were basically treated as slaves. 

They started building the monument in 1940 and finished in 1959. The monument is nestled in a beautiful forested valley about 15 minutes outside the small town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. There is only one public bus per day, and the website says that the site is closed to tour groups, steps that some people think the authorities took in order to make the monument harder to visit; wanting either to discourage Franco's supporters from coming by to admire his work (and to visit his grave, inside the basilica) or just because the Civil War and the 40-year dictatorship that followed it are still very controversial periods within Spain. We met many people in Ciudad Real who had family members who died or disappeared during the war, and some of them have relatives who still won't talk to each other as a result. Either way, it makes for a very dramatic scene when you pull up and see this 500-foot tall cross: 

The Basilica is built into this hill below the giant cross. From the outside it's hard to tell what it will look like inside, but it has tall domes and arched ceilings like you would see in most churches in Spain, and looks a lot like the basilica inside the Royal Monastery in El Escorial. In fact, Franco saw Philip's time as a golden age for Spain, and by building his memorial so close by and borrowing some of the same architectural style, he was trying to link his regime to the nation's former imperial glory.

The Basilica faces Madrid, and has a beautiful view of the countryside and the city off in the distance: 

Inside the church, we started to get pretty creeped out. A lot of the imagery and statues are pretty dark, and the place is not in the best condition, most likely because they aren't getting a lot of money from the democratic government to keep it up. I wasn't supposed to take photos... but I managed to snap a few anyways. (This is Spain, right? Who needs rules...) The photo on the left is a winged angel with a sword, and on the right there is a door that marks the graves of the Nationalists (Franco's side, made up of religious conservatives and wealthy landowners) who died in the civil war. It says "Fallen. For God and for Spain. 1936-1939. RIP."

 

Entering the darkness through an archway flanked by two of those winged angels, we felt something like we were entering the Mines of Moria in the Lord of the Rings. Here's the view looking down the corridor of the church before you arrive at the center dome: 

Most of the other visitors (there weren't very many there when we were there) were tourists like us, just interested in seeing a piece of Spain's history. We did, however, see a few people who were there to honor Franco and pay their respects to his grave. Watching them kiss Franco's grave was pretty shocking, and eventually we ran out of there to get some fresh air and distract ourselves from the weirdness of the place while waiting for the bus to take us back to town. We walked up behind the hill to the other side of the cross where there is another monastery and courtyard. This area was actually really peaceful, and since it was a decent walk uphill, we were the only tourists who made it up there. It was a welcome break from being inside the underground basilica. 

In retrospect, spending our last day in Spain at El Escorial may not have been the most cheerful end to our time in the country, but it was definitely an interesting trip through some of the darker and imperialist episodes in the country's history. Fortunately, Spain has changed immensely since Franco's death in 1975. From embracing democracy and tourism to building high-speed trains across the country and joining the EU, the country has come a long way in just a few generations. After riding the train back to Madrid, we spent our last evening hanging out at our favorite vegetarian restaurant there, and then got up early to head to Rome. Stay tuned for pictures and stories of our Italian adventures soon!