El Escorial (October 17)

We decided last minute to hop on a bus Friday morning to El Escorial for 6.60 euros. It was a short trip and we caught the bus just in time. I slept a little on the way there, and also learned that in Spain it is impolite to sleep on the bus the way I am used to on the way to track meets back home. The ride was about an hour long and a little shaky but we made it ok. It didn't take us a long time to figure out that El Escorial is not too big. We started at the monastery which was pretty interesting. From the beginning we saw a tapestry of the masterpiece painting at the Prado in Madrid called, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" However, inside the museum we could not take any pictures...and their were security guards everywhere...


I was not exactly sure what was being said but I think there was an event in the Basilica so we could not go inside. The weather was beautiful and outside the monastery there were kids from a grade school I am guessing playing for recess.These are the streets of El Escorial...in the autumn...
After the monastery, we ate a SMALL lunch and waited around for the bus to the "Valley of the Fallen" It is about 20 minutes outside of El Escorial. Here is the view from the bus.
When we arrived there we went into the Basilica to look around. It was getting cloudy outside and inside was very dim. It made it difficult to read and see what was inside.

After looking inside, we still had some time before the bus went back to El Escorial so we decided we would try and walk to the top , where the cross is...this is as far as we got...This is the other side of the cross from where I am standing in the picture before. We were following a path but it didn't get us very close. We didn't want to miss the bus back to El Escorial so we started the trek back. By this time there were a few drops hitting my glasses and making the walk a little less enjoyable. Overall it was a nice little day trip...with lots of tombs, by the way.