Whenever I have anyone visit me in Madrid, I like to make up some kind of itinerary to ensure we both make the best use of our time during their stay and often so that we do some things which are also new experiences for me. I recently had my brother come to visit me on his own and one thing he was certain of was that he wanted to visit some of the countryside outside Madrid. After looking back through my list of places I can travel to for free on my Abono travel card, which I haven’t already visited and is meant to be worth going to, we settled on having a day trip to El Escorial.
El Escorial is a small Spanish town, just approximately one hour or so outside of Madrid by train. The town itself is quite high up amongst the mountains and once we arrived, we had a fairly steep 20 minute walk up from the train station to the main tourist attraction – the Royal Monastery. The walk there was very tranquil, the town is quiet and the path leads you through rows of trees and quaint houses. The vast Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial was built between 1563 and 1584. Alongside this building, the grounds include a royal palace, a basilica, a pantheon, a vaulted library and a school.
When we eventually reached the monastery, we had a thorough look around from many different angles, admiring the buildings and gardens and the incredible views. We decided against going into the monastery itself because although it looked impressive, many people’s reviews online said it wasn’t worth it as you’re not allowed to take any photographs (which I was particularly dissuade by) and it’s quite costly - €12 entry! Nevertheless, the journey there was still worth it for the beautiful views of the mountains and countryside and we still got a good look at what the building, gardens and grounds are like – we even snuck into a pretty secret courtyard where we saw some lovely peacocks!
We then went to explore the attractive town and enjoyed some nice coffees, outside in the sun – we also had the bonus of being given a piece of free cake! After this, we headed on the walk back to the train station but decided to go through the park this time. It was a beautiful walk, either side of the path was aligned with very tall trees and we were even lucky enough to see a red squirrel!
My brother was very pleased with the trip, as was I, and he felt he had got his countryside fix! I’m really pleased with myself that I’ve managed to visit as many places as I have for free with my Abono travel card; making the most of being able to travel so easily and having different cultural experiences of these old towns. As my time here in Madrid is sadly drawing to a close, it’s made me reflect on these trips and I feel as though each one of them has broadened my knowledge and awareness of how different Spanish culture is just as little as 30 minutes-1 hour outside of its capital city centre.