El Escorial, the best gem of my trip thus far!

SO at about 10:20 I left my house Sunday morning and walked to the train station and met Anna and another sutend Amanda. The train ticket was about 5€ to and from our destination. IT was a big long going but on the way coming back it seemed quick. When we got to the train station we walked outside and took a bus about for 1.20€ and we rode up to the palace. We bought our admission for 3.5€ instead of the regular 8€, what a great student discount right? We also bought the audtio guide which was so worth it! I learned so much from the audioguide. After we purchased the guides we began our tour which started in a room full of tapestries from the chruch made by artist from the Flemish schools and then following that area was a museum of architecture which showed various plans and methods of constructions s well as various tools used. After that one entereed a series of champers which made up an art gallery with a few El Grecos and Velasquez as well as other artist from several different countries. Most noticebly they all consisted of religious artwork with the exception of a few florals or family portraits which is most befitting considering this is a monastary. My third favorite room is next and that was the hall of battles, which depicts a whole scene of battles on land and sea. If one is clever enough to notice, at the top of the art are nails painted to make the painting look like a tapestry. After exiting gown a corridor of stairs you reach the queen´s chamber which had a double bed, not a queen size as well as a room for her desk after that one reached rooms that were used by the royal family to congregate and spent time together with a room for dining in for King Felipe II. After that you see the King´s chamber which I expected to be a lot bigger and he had the same layout as the queen. When Anna, Amanda, and I walked down a long grand marble staircase we knew we were going to the royal crypt because it was getting reallly cold and I had a creepy feeling. The main crypt contained 12 kings and 12 queens who became the mother of kings. I noticed that there were three empty tombs, one should have been filled by now because they have to wait for the body to decompose. The lst person died in 1964, any day now. After stairing at the magnificant craftsmanship and grand chandelier we made it to 9 other rooms full of dead royals. Some white marble tombs were noticebly smooth, waiting for a body to be laid to rest alongside the others. The ones that were filled had a family crest above, as well as engraving on the top of the tomb. There were probably about 10+ ones that were not filled. The most saddest room to me was the children´s crypt because kids under 7 who died before thier first communion were paced here. It looks like a carosel with three levels and each level has crests adorned above the name, there are some teenage royals laid to rest on the side and religious icons guard the room from evil as one exists to four other rooms of crypts. From there one reachers and end with several rooms used for religous purposes and for cardinals with gobs full religous paintings. After that you come to ¨the patio of evangelists¨ it was pretty and there were paintings going all round this huge porch starting with the birth of Christ through the Ascension with a staircase leading to the basilica of the complex. Next is probably my 2nd favorite part, that being the huge stone staircase with a beautiful fresco that took seven months to complete, don´t worry I got pictures without a flash. The tour was pretty much close to an end ant the basilica was closed because of restoration. The only thing left was the patio of the kings and the library. The library was huge and had 45000 books with the earliest being from about 60s AD, I was able to read the book written in Spanish that taught you how to play chess and it even had pictures to hlept explain the moves. There was an interesting astroglove from about the 1560s-1570s and it was quite impressive. Our tour of 4 hours ws over after that and we cuaght the train to go home. All in all, I was really impressed but I wish I could have made it to the Valley of the Fallen, where Francisco Franco is buried.

That´s all folks!