Parte Dos

AND MORE…

After Toledo, I visited the palace of Felipe II built in 1560. It is called El Escorial and let me tell you that it is one big sucker. It wasn’t too beautiful though, because Felipe II was muy religious and liked the cold, austere look. What a guy.

In El Escorial lies the Royal Pantheon, where most of the kings and their wives of Spain have been buried. It was a solemn environment and you could tell that Spaniards take this stuff seriously.

I have my days confused already, so I am not sure about which day we went to El Escorial because I also went to La Granja, the Burbon’s palace from the 18th Century. The gardens there were beautiful and I liked that palace a lot better than Felipe’s. I still didn’t care much for the actual building though, my main focus was outside.

Okay
After La Granja, the final sight outside of Madrid was the Roman aqueduct in Segovia. It doesn’t contain any glue/nails/cement/etc. to hold it together but rather relies on key-blocking. That is when you carve out-ies and in-ies into the large stones and lay them on top of each other. By pure pressure and engineering, they stay put. This structure was amazing because it is still standing 2000 years later.

And Segovia is known for their suckling pig, so I went with some professors and friends to see what it was about. Looked OK :)

Also there was a castle that Walt Disney based his Disney Castle off of, and tiny streets to wander about in. We stumbled upon the old Jewish quarters and there was some very beautiful doors and old wooden beams still supporting buildings.
Off to Madrid.

-clh

Pictures:

1. El Escorial, or at least a tiny part of it.
2. Iglesia de Vera Cruz (Church of the Holy Cross), a perfectly round church in Segovia that has many legends around it.
3. a building in the Jewish quarter, including old wooden beams
4. suckling pig
5. and the bill
6. The Segovia Cathedral, the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain
7. The Roman aqueduct
8. can you see it?
9. at the La Granja, overlooking a part of the jardins (gardens)
10. view of the La Granja from the jardins