Today we went to El Escorial which is less than an hour away from Madrid by train. The original plan was to hike the mountain behind the monastery but since the student admissions rate for the monastery was only 3 euros, we decided to venture through this mighty castle. It turned out to be a good call because while we were admiring the astonishingly accurate maps drawn by Spanish explorers from the 16th century, it started pouring rain.
El Monasterio de El Escorial was both a monastery and a Spanish Royal Palace during the 16th and 17th centuries. King Philip II contracted architect Juan Bautista de Toledo to build this complex as an expression in stone of Catholicism in Spain. Highlights: gold ceilings, the pantheon of kings, King Philip II's death bed, and the Basilica [words cannot describe the grandiosity of this church].
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