The second cheap day trip! As mentioned previously in my Salamanca post, this was the next low-cost yet adventurous trip the girls and I took to explore more of our surroundings just outside Madrid. Part of the reason why we booked these short trips was because we have been quite aware of just how fast this incredible year is flying past us and we wanted to make sure we made the most of living here in Spain – so we decided that visiting nearby places would be a good start!
Aranjuez is a mere 30-minute train ride from one of the central stations in Madrid. It is also one of the nearby destinations that we are able to travel to for free using our student Abono travel cards, although without this, it only costs approximately €8 return! With regular train departures and not finding an extensive list of activities to do there, we decided to leave roughly 5 hours to spend there, which in hindsight, was definitely enough time.
The town sits on the River Tagus in central Spain, just south of Madrid. After hopping off at the train station, it took roughly fifteen minutes to reach our first tourist attraction – The Royal Palace. This amazing structure was built in the 18thcentury and was established close to the time Phillip II of Spain converted the capital Toledo to Madrid (Toledo is another lovely city we have visited, also for free on our Abono travel cards)! The former Spanish royal residence is mainly famous for its elaborately detailed interior, comprising of magnificent and grand rooms, a dance hall and a throne room. The exterior of the building and its surrounding grounds were definitely an impressive sight - including many different gardens and the river running alongside it.
Luckily, the day we visited (a Wednesday) meant that it was free for us to enter the palace as EU citizens. However, we did have to wait until 3pm for this offer, so we decided to stop off briefly in the square just outside the palace. We indulged in home-made cake and sangria whilst enjoying the sun and view of the palace grounds.
Once we entered the palace, it took our breath away. The first major sight that our eyes were drawn to was the very stunning glass chandelier and luxurious marble double staircase, which wound up to the first floor.
We then proceeded to take a memorable tour of the countless generously decorated rooms, including a Chinese porcelain one. Unfortunately, we were strictly not allowed to take photos of the inside of the rooms, so here are some that I had to grab from the internet! Each room was unique in its own way, differing in art and aesthetic, yet they were all equally as majestic and eye-catching as the next.
Photo credit: Pinterest, Buzz.ie and Wikipedia.
Although… I did manage to sneak one photo of my favourite room, it was one which seemed to have been inspired by Moroccan architecture design – with beautifully tiled interior.
After the palace, with only a few hours left of our time in Aranjuez, we decided to leave the neighbouring gardens for perhaps summer time when the plants are more in season and we could enjoy a picnic in the sun. Instead, we decided to venture up into the town a bit more and found a square where the Church of San Antonio or ‘San Antonio de Padua’is located. This was another sight to see, as it has been declared as Bien de Interés Cultural and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO within Aranjuez Cultural Landscape in 2003. As you can see, it was actually so cold there that some snow had stayed settled on the ground! After admiring the building and surrounding grounds, we made our way back to the train station to go home.
There is no doubt that Aranjuez is a beautiful and quaint town, although I would perhaps not rush back there due to the lack of things to do. However, I fully appreciate that I am lucky enough to have such a range of culturally diverse and interesting nearby towns to visit whilst doing my Erasmus year. This is something I’m sure I will miss upon my return to the UK and I intend to make the most of it whilst I still can!
My next booked trip is to somewhere which is a slight change of scenery to Spanish culture… Morocco!