First day of summer.

In about an hour, it will be summer in Madrid - and not a moment too soon! In about two weeks, I´ll probably be complaining about the heat! We had a wonderful weekend, chilly in the mornings but glorious in the afternoons. Saturday we had our first excursion out of Madrid to San Lorenzo de el Escorial - a town at the foot of the Sierra Guardarama about 70 km north of Madrid. The village is a popular site for summer homes for Madrileños who wish to escape the heat of the city (as are all the towns at the foot of the Guardarama). It was chosen my Felipe II as the site of his summer palace. Being a very learned and religious man, the Escorial contains a Basilica, a monastery (originally of Franciscan but now Augistinian monks), a school, a museum, an extensive library, an extensive collection of art and the pantheon for all the Kings and Queens of Spain since Felipe II in the 15th Century. Our guide was Pablo, an educator at an Ignatian College here in Madrid. His knowledge of the Escorial was amazing! Our tour was nearly 3 hours, and the boys were great although they are not used to standing and walking for so many hours. There are docents in every part of the Escorial which is part of the Patrimonio Nacional - or the Heritage Sites of the country and so there is no sitting or leaning on the walls or furniture. There are tons of steps, up and down as we traversed the various levels of the Palace-monastery. I think he told us there were more than 1800 kilometers of corridors in the building. If you asked the boys, they would probably tell you that they walked all of them!


The boys got their first introduction to Spanish art. Felipe II was a great lover of the arts and when he was buidling his palace, he commissioned many pieces. El Greco, the great 16th Century Spanish master (who came from the greek island of Crete) originally came to Spain to paint for Felipe II. Unfortunately, Felipe II didn´t like his style (!!!!!) and he never became court painter. There is however, an extensive collection of his work at the Escorial. They will see much more of it tomorrow when we visit the Prado.

Due to the fact that too many people have ignored repeated requests over the course of many years to take photos only without flash (as the contstant flash damages paint, pigment and art) photos are now forbidden in most historical sites and certainly in museums. I know that a few surreptitious photos were taken but in general, the boys won´t have any interior shots of the Escorial. But they got lots of exterior shots as we strolled through the elaborate gardens and through the town of the Escorial.

They were able to see how the building was constructed in the 16th Century - with winches, pulleys, ropes, stone cutting tools - as of course it was all done by hand. They were also able to see the huge grantite blocks and how they change colour with the light, time of year and time of day. The granite used in the Escorial is the same granite mined from the Guardarama that the romans used for the aqueduct that we saw on Sunday in Segovia (but I´m getting ahead of myself!)

There was lots of sleeping on the bus during the return trip to Madrid, but the boys seemed to recover in time to change and get back to the discoteca for an evening of music and dancing. They were accompanied by one of the young men who teaches at International House so I was able to escape to have dinner with a friend - but by all accounts, a good time was had by all! It was amazing to me how standing and walking was so exhausting, but dancing was NO problem!!!! Go figure!