Friday, May 11, 2012
Aranjuez
Yet another day trip! I wasn't really sure what to expect with this day trip, but it certainly didn't disappoint! We met up by the train station at 9, loaded the bus, then headed on our way! Each trip with the group gets more and more fun because we're all really good friends by now, so bus conversations are usually never dull. Some of my favorite moments on the bus are when we had joke time! Everyone went around and told jokes, and we'd get the whole bus laughing. It was a good time! Profe Hague especially loved it! He was laughing harder than anyone else. I absolutely love when Profe hangs out with us! He's an awesome guy. Today, we started with another town on our way to Arenjuez. This was a tiny little town called Chinchon, and really the biggest thing it had to offer was the cute little shops and bars that were just starting to open up when we got there around 10. I'm not really sure why Profe chose to stop here, but it was fun to get out and look around for a minute.
The biggest benefit about this city was that I bought a couple of souvenirs that I'd been looking for but hadn't found anywhere else. That was nice! As we got back on the bus to drive to Aranjuez, we passed through a tiny town that had an interesting little trend: a ton of the doorways had curtains for doors! I thought it was so interesting! Whether it was like that because it's traditional or because it was a nice day, I'm not quite sure, but either way, I thought it was cool!
Finally, on to Aranjuez! We soon found out that the big attraction here is a grand palace, similar to La Granja in Segovia. First we all ate our sack lunches (I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but every time we go on trips, our host family packs us a picnic so we don't have to spend money on food), then got to go tour the outside gardens. Gorgeous! Palaces are probably my favorite things to visit, especially for the exquisite gardens that we get to walk through. So so so cool! We had about two and a half hours to wander around and do whatever we wanted before we had to meet back again for the palace tour.
And now onto the gardens!
I took so many pictures! It's hard to just choose a few to show.
And some more...
After taking ALL these pictures, we headed back to the front of the palace to meet with the group and have our inside tour. Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside. It makes me sad, because the inside rooms were exquisitely grand, and I don't use the word "exquisite" often! It was really quite amazing to see. We had a tour guide, and she explained the interesting details about the palace and its history. One interesting thing that she mentioned was that many of the palaces were seasonal, and the royal family would live in different ones for the different seasons. The rotation included this palace, the Real Sitio de Aranjuez, La Granja in Segovia, and a couple more that we haven't visited yet. Interesting! After our amazing tour, we walked over to a supposedly awesome open market that sold Spanish food, but when we got over there it was closed for siesta. Instead, we found an open supermarket across the street and all bought some ice cream! That's the perfect way to end a long day trip.
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Great pictures hon! I'm so happy you're experiencing this!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mama! Love you! I'm glad you're reading this. :)
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