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.

Savoring Swine in Segovia

After a poor night of sleep, we were thankful that we could sleep in a little later as our train to take us to Segovia did not leave until 10 AM.  First, we walked to the Puerta del Sol to have a quick breakfast at La Mallorquina.  The six of us were able to squeeze into a narrow, vacant spot at the counter and ordered some coffees and pastries.  With our limited Spanish, it was merely just a matter of pointing to what we wanted.  Although the extremely popular restaurant was crowded and busy, the staff were very patient with our limited language skills.

After an hour-long journey, we arrived at the Segovia train station far on the outskirts of town.  We then transferred by bus which took us into the heart of the older part of the city.  We were immediately greeted by an immense aqueduct that towers over most of the other structures in town.  Built in the 1st century AD, this two-tiered structure is one of the two best preserved Roman aqueducts in the world.  It has been in such good shape that it supplied water to the city as late as the 19th century.

Our next stop would be the Alcazar of Segovia.  Just like the one in Toledo, the Alcazar of Segovia has had many uses from Roman forts to Muslim and Christian Palaces, to military academies.  We were relieved to find out that it does not currently house an army museum.  The short, 10 minute walk took us through the heart of the old town.  Aside from its early Roman roots, this portion of the town resembles a medieval city with its Gothic churches and stone streets.  Aside from the busloads of tourists that arrived with us, the old town was quaint with a relaxing vibe.

This reproduction of the Loba Capitolina
 was a gift from the city of Rome to Segovia
celebrating the city's Latin heritage.

School children performing Christmas carols at the city's Plaza Mayor was a reminder of the festive season.

The Alcazar of Segovia is strategically located on a cliff overlooking the confluence of two rivers on the western most side of the town.  Unlike the one in Toledo that we had seen the day before, the Alcazar of Segovia looked much more like a traditional medieval castle.  On the inside, it also retained its palatial history and decor.  We purchased tickets for the regular entry to the palace rooms and "artillery museum" and skipped the entry for the Tower of John II (because we were too lazy to walk up the 152 step staircase).

As we entered the castle, we could see how deep the moat had been as it was completely drained of water.  Despite not taking the tour up into the tower, we still had good views of the adjacent pastoral countryside.

On the ground floor, there is an armory museum with a decent-sized collection of medieval suits of armor.  The small size of several of the suits belies the general short stature of people back during that time.

The tour took us through several of the private rooms of the royalty including their chamber, chapel. and throne room.  Most of the rooms were adorned with beautiful stain glass windows.

Hall of the Galley

This mural depicts the coronation of Queen Isabella I to the
throne of Castille-Leon, an event that happened at this castle.

Throne Room

Royal Chamber

Hall of the Kings

The tour culminated in the artillery museum which was a collection of old cannons and ranged weapons.  There were also additional cannons scattered throughout the castle grounds as well.  We were thankful that there was no displays going into minute details regarding every engagement Spain had fought over the last 500 years.

Overall, we enjoyed our time at the Alcazar.  It was an interesting building with a nice history.  At our leisurely pace, it took us only a little more than an hour to see.  We backtracked to the heart of the city to visit the Cathedral of Segovia.  The city's previous cathedral was located adjacent to the Alcazar.  It was destroyed during the Revolt of the Comuneros in 1521 as royal soldiers occupied it during the city's siege.  The citizens rebuilt the cathedral but relocated it to the Plaza Mayor to prevent it being near the center of any further military action.  This late Gothic style building is massive and took 50 years to complete.

We didn't spend too long in the Cathedral--just enough time to appreciate the architecture and artistry of the craftsmen and painters who created the building.  We had to make it to our lunch reservations at Jose Maria Restaurante.  Segovia is known for a couple of dishes--judiones de la granjes (bean stew), ponche de Segovia (a spongy layer cake with custard and marzipan), and cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig).  But wait, didn't we just have the roast suckling pig the night before at Botin and were unimpressed.  Yes, but when in Rome (or a former Roman frontier city)...

Nothing whets the appetite better than a dead 21 day-old baby pig in a window.

There are plenty of restaurants around the old part of town that specialize in cochinillo asado.  They all get great reviews, and I could find no consensus on which is the best.  The location for Jose Maria Restaurante worked best for our schedule.  We were led to a back room and seated at a table that could fit twice our number.

Los judiones del Rio Sitio

Probadillo de segadores  (black pudding, chorizo, and pork sausages)

The cochinillo asado was brought out in a serving platter.  The waiter then proceeded to use the edge of a plate to cut up the pieces of meat.  This is supposed to show how crispy the outer skin and how tender the inner meat is as it falls off the bone.  It's a bit pretentious and inefficient, but that's apparently de rigueur for these roast piglet restaurants in Segovia.

We also tried their roast lamb which is less renown but equally traditional dish of Segovia.

We had a much better experience at Jose Maria compared to Botin.  It's not really a fair comparison as one restaurant is located in one of the busiest neighborhoods in the country's capital, while the other is in a rustic, slower-paced tourist town.  In Segovia, the food was better and the prices were more reasonable.  The service was great at Jose Maria.  The waiters were so nice that as we left they gave The Kids a pretty awesome gift.

 After we finished lunch, it was still pretty early in the afternoon and it was so much warmer and lovelier than the day before.  Therefore, we just took a leisurely stroll throughout the old part of the city enjoying the quaint atmosphere.

Whoa! We have a problem with these
guys too down in the Deep South.

Eventually, it was time to leave.  We boarded the bus back to the train station and made our way back to Madrid.  After a brief respite back in our apartment, we walked a couple of blocks to La Casa Del Abuelo for dinner.  For a second, I was confused as there were two storefronts across the street from each other.  One was more for the casual bar/tapas dining.  We picked the location that catered to family dining with large tables and chairs.

The restaurant dates back about 100 years ago.  The family that owns the restaurant also has had a winery outside the city known for their red wine.  They also have a tradition of specializing in serving up prawn dishes.  The prices were higher than some of the other restaurants like Casa Toni which was nearby.  However, the prawns were good and the sangria was the best we had in all of Spain.

Sangria

Tomate aliñado al Ajillo

Gambas al ajillo

Gambas a la plancha

We enjoyed our day in Segovia much more than Toledo.  Much of that had to do with the much warmer weather and the slower pace that we took to see the city.  Regardless, Segovia is definitely worth taking a side trip from Madrid.