El Escorial

I left Madrid a week ago to travel around Spain and visit some friends so I therefore have not had internet access. So I have several past entries to post now that I am connected to the virtual world again so I'm just going to post them with the original date on the top.

Tuesday, August 11^th

Jordan and I took a train to Las Rosas which is a suburb of Madrid and where Jordan will be teaching this year. It is also where our friend Carlos lives so we met up with him and Bee and went to visit El Escorial. El Escorial is an important Spanish royal sight that is about 28 miles outside of Madrid and was built in the 1570s. Since then it has been the historical residence of the king of Spain and the burial sight of the Spanish kings and royal families of the last five centuries. It is an impressively huge complex. It functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, Basilica, and school. We spent about 3 hours touring it (until our stomachs demanded that we could do no more without eating) and only managed to see about 1/3 of it. It was really magnificent and beautiful (as most royal sights are).

Jordan and I waiting in line in one of the courtyards.

A sign we found to be very appropriate for me (for those of you who don't know, I took a very bad tumble down some marble stairs in Central Park and had some serious physical repercussions...and I now experience extreme anxiety every time I go down stairs).

One of the many beautifully painted ceilings.

Bee and I in the courtyard of the Pantheon of Kings.

Saying goodbye to Bee at the train station of Las Rozas. She is heading back to Oklahoma to finish her Masters. We met in Oklahoma but she is my beautiful Colombian friend I mentioned earlier who is from Barranquilla (Shakira's city...in case you haven't learned by now). It was so great to get to hang out with her in Spain. I'll miss you love!

After we left El Escorial, we went to a restaurant called VIPS (pronounced here as 'beeps' which for some reason I find to be very funny) and ate some delicious Mexican found which is already the food I am missing most from Oklahoma.