A long time ago when I last wrote a Sentimental Sunday post, I was reliving my summer vacation to Spain. The next stop on this Sentimental journey is El Escorial, the second of the three day trips we took from Madrid.
El Escorial is home to the magnificent Monastery of El Escorial. The Monastery is so immense that I was not able to get a picture of it that can show the entire structure. Here are two of different sections of the exterior of the building.
Here we saw amazing works of art, royal apartments, and fabulous gardens. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside the Monastery, but we did manage to take one of the gardens through the window (and we got in trouble for that).
One aspect of this Monastery that fascinated me was that it houses the burial place for the Spanish Monarchs. Again, we weren't allowed to take pictures (this one is from the web), but here we saw the tombs of many Spanish Kings and royalty. There are even two empty tombs waiting for the current King and Queen - Juan Carlos and Sofia. For some unknown reason, this type of stuff gives me a thrill. The creepier the better. I was fascinated to learn that near the tombs is a "rotting room" where the dead monarchs are left to, well... rot, before their bones are interred in the tombs. I was disappointed that the rotting room was not part of the tour. I know, I'm slightly twisted.
As much as I love dead people and corpses, I LOVE books more. No monastery would be complete without a library. And El Escorial is no exception. I was awed by this amazing library. This is exactly what my vision of heaven looks like! Of course photos were not allowed, but I just had to show it to you so I borrowed this photo from Google images as well.
Next week (I hope), I'll tell you about our last day trip from Madrid - to Toledo.
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5 comments:
The rotting room? A little acid would speed that up. Ewww. That library photo looks like the ceiling in Vatican Museum. Remember? Beautiful photos....hope to seen it someday.
Fabulous photos!
Oh I love the history of the European areas with the tours and priceless everything that will never exist in the States. Gorgeous and so much fun! It really makes me want to go to Europe again. Love the photos!
Oh, I so needed a trip this evening. Thank you.
Beautiful! It reminds me of a monastery I visited in Austria five years ago-- just wonderful :)
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