good talk

Most visitors to Madrid don't go to San Lorenzo de El Escorial and I had never been there myself, it's 30 miles by short-distance train, which I took from Sol.  But it's heavily-touristed, they were thick as flies, as it's a fabulous monastery and royal palace. Begun in 1563 and finished in 1584 by Philip 11 (the King of the ill-fated Spanish Armada, wanting to eradicate Protestantism, Philip wooed Queen Elizabeth of England with fine gifts, the gift she sent Philip was a chest of cannonballs), most of the Spanish Kings since have been interred there, both Hapsburg and Bourbon, and I've seen Philip's casket in the Royal Pantheon.  You can go through Philip's Palace, the Royal Gallery contains major works of Titian, Velazquez, de Ribera, El Greco, and more.  The Hall of Battles glorifies Spanish Victories, there's the fantastic Library, there's the beautiful Gardens, and of course, the magnificent Basilica, and other good stuff.  It's not to be missed.  I went to Valle de los Caidos, Valley of the Fallen, several miles away, there's a bus that leaves and returns once a day.  Begun by victorious Francisco Franco, in 1940, it was completed in 1959, as it commemorates those killed in the Spanish Civil War, supposedly both Republican and Fascist, but particularly the winning-side, and some Republican prisoners were forced-labor in building it. The Santa Cruz Basilica is one of the largest in the world, and there's the tallest, 150 metres, memorial-cross in the world.  In the valley, there's 40 thou graves, the Basilica itself has only 2 interred, Jose Primo de Rivera, a Republican leader killed in 1936, and Franco himself, after he died in 1975, and he's the only one who didn't die in the War.  To be in these wonderful places was very exciting