Madrid - Day 5 (Excursion to El Escorial)

After exploring Madrid for a few days, today we went on an excursion to El Escorial, which is about 50 km away. There stands the monastery palace 'San Lorenzo de El Escorial', which combines a monastery and a royal palace.

We had pre-booked our tickets, which turned out unnecessary as there was no line at the entrance. The place was initially quiet until some school groups arrived. Then it got a bit louder, but we continued our audio guide tour undeterred.

The interior of the place was quite cold, which is why the gentleman decided to forego his sweater jacket... :)

After the visit, we sat on the terrace of a restaurant in the sun to warm up. We ordered paella and a second course for lunch. However, the dishes we chose were unfortunately unavailable, so based on the process of elimination (no liver, no fish), we had 'broken eggs'. They turned out to be scrambled eggs and tasted good.

We walked through the Prince's Park to the train station in El Escorial. Along the way, we passed by the Prince's Palace, whose gardens can be visited for free.

Prince's Palace

You can only enter the interior with a guided tour, but unfortunately, the tours are only offered in Spanish. So we decided to give it a pass and only took a quick look through the windows.

In the garden of the Prince's Palace

We took the train to the 'Madrid Rio' Park, where we walked along the riverbank and crossed various bridges. The promenade was beautifully designed, and the bridges were artistically crafted.

Puente Monumental de Arganzuela

Puente del Invernadero

In the park, we were able to observe some parrots hopping around on the lawn:

Our 'bridge-hopping' ended at the former slaughterhouse, the Matadero, which has now become a cultural center.