San Lorenzo de El Escorial

For our last day staying in Madrid, we decided to take a half-day trip to San Lorenzo de El Escorial.  The major (and really only) attraction at this nearby town is the Monesterio de San Lorenzo, once the residence of the kings of Spain.  A short bus took us to the city which is located 45 kilometers outside of Madrid.  The monastery is a short 10-15 minute walk from the bus station.   We arrived as they were opening so we were some of the first people through.  Our bags had to be stored in lockers.  We were allowed to carry cameras inside, but photography was not allowed in most areas indoors.  I'm not really sure why as almost all of the other tourist sights we had visited in Spain were fine to non-flash photography.  Nevertheless, no unjust laws made by men would deter me.  However, the plethora of monastery staff and security guards mainly did.

Although we entered the complex through the tourist entrance, we soon encountered the true main entrance known as the Courtyard of the Kings.  Statues of the kings of Judea decorate the buildings facade.

Above this area is the Royal Library.  There are plenty of books (over 40,000) in the collection, but oddly, none of them are available to be checked out.  Past this area is the Monastery portion of the complex.  Countless frescoes depicting religious scenes line the courtyards.  In the galleries are numerous art pieces painted by masters such as Titian, El Greco, etc.

Further along, we entered the Pantheon of the Princes, where lesser Spanish royalty from the last several centuries have been buried.

Past that area is the Pantheon of the Kings.  With the exception of Phillip V and Ferdinand VI, every Spanish king since Charles I in 1575 has been interred in this vault.

Other areas that are open to the public include King Phillip II's palace which has stayed unchanged since his death in 1598.  There are also the apartments used by the Bourbon emperors which has a more French rather than Spanish flair.

A sundial was incorporated into the floor next to a window...

...that looked out over the monastery's gardens.

In the Hall of Battles, an entire wall is covered by a fresco from the Battle of Higueruela.
In 1431, the Christian Kingdom of Castille defeated the Muslim Nasrids near Grenada.

After ending our tour of the Monasterio de San Lorenzo, we took the bus back to Madrid.  We made a stop for a quick bite at Chocolateria San Gines.

This time, we went to the simple cafe area where there were plenty of empty seats available.

We also tried the porras which were much thicker than the churros.

There was still plenty of time left in the day, so we decided to visit the Palacio Real, the residence of the current King and Queen of Spain.  We stopped at a couple of shops along the way.  One sold an assortment of fancy turróns created by Albert Adria.  Turróns are very similar to nougat candies, being made with honey, egg whites, and almonds.  The Spanish love their turróns, especially during the Holiday season.  You can't walk a block or two without finding a shop that sells these confections.  I was especially intrigued to see what sort of avant-garde flavors he would come up with.  There were a whole range of ingredients and flavor combinations including raspberry truffles, urgelia cheese, violet flowers, and yuzu marzipan.  These bricks weren't cheap, and likely not too good for the waistline.  We tried a few.  They were definitely interesting, but not all winners.

As we neared the Palacio Real, the crowds got much thicker.  The Wife felt a little tugging on her purse, making her instinctively grasp it tighter.  When she had a chance to check it a few moments later, she discovered that the zipper had been opened.  Luckily, she had kept her wallet deep down in the bottom of her purse to foil potential pickpockets.  Nothing was taken, but she carried her purse in front of her from then on. 

The entire royal area is huge as there is also the Almudena Cathedral and the Campo del Moro Gardens adjacent to the Palacio Real.  We visited the Royal Armoury first which contained many sets of ceremonial armor and weapons.  We then proceeded into the palace itself.  Photography was prohibited past the entryway of the palace as the royal family does still use the building.

The Royal family even had their version of the Nativity scene on display.

Whoa! I don't remember that part of the Nativity story!

The Real Palacio was nice, but it was nowhere as impressive as those in England, France, or even Turkey.  For dinner we walked a good 20 minutes farther than the area surrounding our apartment to eat at a small tapas restaurant called Los Caracoles.  It's definitely a neighborhood bar as we stood out sorely, being a bunch of non-Spanish-speaking Asians.  The specialty of the eatery is snails.  They have large bowel of snails stewing in sauce with tomatoes, peppers, and other spices.  The rest of the food that we ordered was meh, but the snails were worth the walk.

Pepinillo relleno

Boquerenos

Caracoles

Tortilla

We were still hungry despite eating a couple of bowls of snails (it's > 50% shells!).  Therefore, we decided to try the Mercado de San Miguel.  This large market just a block from the Plaza Mayor is filled with stalls selling all sorts of sweet and savory Spanish concoctions.  It's easy to get paralyzed by indecision there because all the food looks so damn good.  The place attracts tourists like flies, but there seemed to be plenty of locals too.  Naturally, the prices were not cheap.

I wish I could say that we got to try a little of everything.  But even I'm not that gluttonous to eat that much.  It would take days to be able to sample all of the food stalls at the market.  We turned in early as we had a long day ahead of us.  We would be saying farewell to Madrid and its nearby towns.  Overall, we enjoyed our time in the Spanish capital, but we looked forward to warmer weather in the Andalusian south.