El Escorial, El Valle de los Caidos, y Las Manzanares

Up bright and early! There’s no rest for the wicked, and besides, today is a day trip! Bummer day for a trip, though. The weather decided to turn cold on the one day we have a trip, when the rest of the week has been absolutely beautiful. Go figure! Today, we visited El Escorial, El Valle de los Caídos, and Las Manzanares. It was pretty nice, because they were all within an hour or so of Madrid, so we didn’t have to drive forever and a day to get there. We first stopped at El Escorial, which was a palace that’s a little higher up in the mountains. It was way cool! This one didn’t look like a palace as much because it was very uniform and not extremely lavish. It was definitely large, but not as extravagant as others. We started our tour in the library. WOW! Jaw drop. It was a huge room with vaulted ceilings that were painted so intricately and with so much detail and color, you could literally stare at it for days and days and never be bored. Not only that, but the books were absolutely amazing. Our guide told us that this is the third best library in the world when it comes to quality. That’s pretty impressive, if you ask me. The books were naturally preserved because of the system that was originally set up to shelve the books. They were all turned backwards so their pages faced outward, thus letting them air out naturally, avoiding mold and other damage to the books. They had books about astrology, astronomy, law, science, mathematics, philosophy, religion, etc. Very, very cool. Not only did this palace have an exquisite library, but also a cathedral, living quarters, a huge crypt housing many famous Spanish kings, queens, and other royalty, a vast gallery of paintings that was home to the works of famous artists, a personal chapel, and many, many other rooms. We were told that if you were to walk the entire square footage of this place, it would be over 10 miles. Good thing we didn’t, although it felt like we came pretty close. One cool thing about this palace is that you could look out the window and still see Madrid in the distance. I would probably compare it as being from Salt Lake to Riverton. On a clear day and from a higher viewpoint, you can see the city from a distance. El Escorial was one of the seasonal palaces that the royalties used, and it’s actually the one where the king said he wanted to die. We even saw the bed that he died in, then his casket. It’s kind of strange to know that you’re surrounded by a bunch of dead bodies down in the crypt, but it’s also very cool at the same time. It’s just like a cemetery, except the caskets aren’t buried. The last room we visited in El Escorial was just a passageway out into the plaza, but it had a whisper dome and a center echo spot. As can be expected, we stayed in that room for probably around 20 minutes playing with the sounds. As we were walking out, we decided to take a quick group pictures on the stairs that led up to the cathedral. Well, we didn’t realize it, but just as we were gathering to take our picture, a wedding procession started at the gates and started heading right towards us! It was actually pretty comical. I felt bad for the bride, because she was being escorted through the plaza by her father and had her cameras flashing all around her, and then all of a sudden there’s this big group of tourists right there! Ha! Sad for her, but definitely a great moment for us! It sure would be amazing to get married in a grand cathedral/palace like that. That probably cost a fortune to arrange, though! Next stop on our trip was El Valle de los Caídos. This wasn’t too far from El Escorial, so we had just enough time to eat our lunch on the bus before we arrived. This place was even further up into the mountains, but you could see it from the freeway. On the outside, there’s a humongous cross, and when you zoom in on it with a camera, you can see all the intricate details that are carved into it and around it. There are figures of apostles and other relics symbolizing Christ. You could take a tram up to the top, but sadly it was closed. You keep walking up the hill, and then you come to some granite pillars. Walk through the pillars that begin to curve around and form a “U” shape, then it leads out into a courtyard overlooking a valley. This is why it’s called “El Valle de los Caídos” (the valley of the fallen). The two sides of the “U” shaped pillars meet in the middle at a door, and at the top about 20 feet up, there’s a giant statue of Mary holding the dead Christ, and then directly above that on the mountain, you can see the cross. If you stand directly in front of it, it all lines up. It was absolutely amazing. The gloomy day made the scene look like I thought it should as well. Upon entering the basilica, I almost fell to the floor because of what I was seeing. Huge, immense ceilings that are literally carved right into the mountain and textured in a very cool manner, wall hangings that stretch across every wall containing some kind of biblical scene, organ pipes at the end of each of the wall hangings, mini chapels for honoring or worshiping a certain saint after every couple of wall hangings, and finally, to the cross section of the basilica where there’s a huge platform with an altar, then rooms off to the side. Around the altar on the walls (and also walking up to the cross section) stood four enormous statues of angels. I call them the destroying angels because they all had huge wings, hoods, and swords that were about to strike. I felt like I was in some kind of movie like “Lord of the Rings” or something! Wow. It was amazing. When you looked up to the ceiling above the main altar, you could see an intricate mosaic representation that stretched the entire length of the ceiling. To the right, there was a huge organ. I assumed that when it was played, it echoed throughout the whole place, not only because the entire building was so echoey, but also because of the organ pipes that lined the walls in the tapestries up through the straight part of the basilica (if that makes sense). Past the organ, there was another room that you could walk into that had benches and another small altar with a statue of Christ on the cross. There was another smaller tile mosaic on the ceiling, and this room even had actual candles that could be lit. In all the other cathedrals and basilicas, you insert money into a machine and it turns on a fake candle that sits and flickers for a few minutes and then goes out. This place was legit! They had lit candles everywhere. It added perfectly to the eerie, “I’m in another world” effect. There was another room like this off to the left of the main altar, and in front of the main altar lies Franco’s tomb, also with Franco’s main henchman entombed to the back of the main altar. If the sight of this place isn’t to blow your mind, knowing the history behind it will. This basilica was built by Franco in the past 100 years, so it’s pretty recent. He forced his prisoners of war to build this basilica for him. Even though he said it was only built to honor and praise Christ, there were many elements instituted to give honor and praise to himself, and to show his absolute power. If any of the prisoners of war died while working on the basilica, they would be put into the walls along with the plaster and stone to fortify the mixture and make it more durable. Intimidating, no? Franco sounds like a really great guy… I didn’t want to leave, but after we were done inside of the basilica, we went to the outside where you could see the outside pillars and building again, and also the valley. We took a bunch of pictures here, then headed back to the bus. I really wish we could have spent more time here! I was absolutely intrigued with everything I saw. I would have loved to spend more time there exploring, walking around, sitting in the basilica and admiring everything inside, then taking a trip up to the cross. I think I want to say that this has been the most impressive (and possibly even my favorite) thing we’ve seen so far on the trip. It was AMAZING! Final stop: Las Manzanarres el Real, which is a big castle in the outskirts of the Community of Madrid. This was a pretty great castle! It stood on the edge of a really cool lake and some mountains in the background as well. While we were walking up to the entrance, speakers were playing some old Scandinavian type music. It made me want to do a jig or something (I may or may not have actually done it for real!)! This was a very typical looking castle, but it seemed like it was in better condition than others. We didn’t have a tour for this one, but the castle had recently been renovated, and the inside was very modern with exhibits and signs explaining the history of the castle. I was really tired and a little bit lazy, so I bypassed those and went upstairs instead. My friends and I had a good time sitting in a little nook and talking while waiting out a rain storm outside. It was perfect! It’s sometimes nice to take a break. After we were more rested and the storm was over, we went up one more floor to the top of the castle. It was beautiful! It overlooked the mountains, the city, and the lake, and with all the beautiful clouds and mist from the storm, it was just perfect. We got to climb all over the top of the castle and take pictures for a bit, then it was back down, on the bus again, then on our way home. As absolutely wonderful as these trips are, they exhaust me! I’m always a zombie by the time we get home. I guess I’ll only be young once, though, so it’s the best time to be here!