Sunday, May 31, 2009

El Escorial, Valle de los Caidos, Shopping and Gino's



Here is a picture of El Escorial.


Today we visited El Escorial which is a palace, a monestary and a royal pantheon. In the basement, there are tombs of Kings and Queens who governed Spain. It was built in the 16th century.


By the way, we have an amazing tour guide, her name is Marisol. She is the most upbeat, and happy older lady I have ever met. You can tell she loves this place. She has been taking us around the amazing cities of Spain.


This is Beth, Kelly and I in front of the Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caidos).


Valle de los Caidos is a basilica carved into a mountain. The prisioners from the spanish civil war built this to get out of their jail time faster. This is a monument to honor all those who died in the war. It was very big and had a church inside.There is a huge, 500ft cross built on top of the mountain. One of the best parts was the ceiling though, it was a mosaic made of tiny sqaures. So cool!

Today after our visit to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen, we went to this amazing restaurant named Gino's. It was this fabulous italian place that had great sangria. It was my frist taste of Spanish sangria, and I think I fell inlove. It was good to finally eat something I knew I'd like!!

Kelly and I had came home and took a siesta after lunch, then we went out shopping on a street called Grand Via. There are so many shops on this street and restaurants too. We ended up spending a little bit of money to make us look a little less american!

Tonight was an easy, relaxing night. We went out to get a drink and then called it an early evening and packed our suitcases. Tomorrow we are on our way to San Sebastian and on our way there we are stopping in another gorgeous city, Segovia.

No comments:

Post a Comment