El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen

Yesterday was our second guided field trip and it was to a city an hour north of Madrid called El Escorial.  What's there?  There is a royal palace/monastery in El Escorial commissioned by King Philip II after his reign as king.  Apparently King Philip II was very pious and built the Church dedicated to St. Lawrence for his father Emperor Charles V and for himself to live in.  The entire building is said to be about 160km or 100 miles of corridors, rooms, gardens, etc.

The guided tour was nice we only get to see about a fraction of the entire grounds but we did get to see the Kings private rooms, the rooms of his daughters, some of the gardens and the amazing burial vault and library.  The entire palace is just basic stone, tapestries and paintings...Philip had loved to collect paintings and art.  When you get down to the burial vault underground, it is gold, marble of all shades and basically magnificence.  There are room after room of marble tombs with elaborate carvings and amazing detail.  Also in the hallways to the monestary, there are like 30 ft high frescos painted by an Italian artist of the life of Christ.  Again...no pictures inside but I did get some of the outside.

The Valley of the Fallen is actually kind of a controversial issue for Spaniards.  Francisco Franco was the one who commissioned the building of this monument, and it was for the soldiers that died in the Spanish Civil war, of both sides from the right and left.  However, most Spaniards think that only soldiers of one side were buried there and wont even go to pay respect if they were in opposition to that side.  Its hard to explain when I cant remember the names of the parties.  Anyway, Franco is buried there along with Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera who is another important figure in the history of the Civil War.  What is amazing about this temple is that there is a cross 125 m high that sits on top of the rock, while inside they carved 300 ft deep for a basilica with an altar, (mass is held their daily) crucifix and a dome that contains a 6 million piece mosaic.  The basilica was just amazing, and within the crypt that is sealed lie 70,000 soldiers.   Behind the basilica on the other side of the rock is a monastery for benedictine monks that care for the whole place.  

This morning Sonya and I went to El Rastro which is supposedly the biggest flea market in Europe.  It was a lot of fun and I bought classic Spanish fans, castanedas and some other goodies.

I have posted more pictures...including last week's visit to Toledo.

This weekend I have soooooooo much homework and midterms this coming week.  Phil is coming on Sunday so that is something to look forward to!

And it is freaking hot here.

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