Escorial, Zaragoza, Pamplona, 11-15 June 2022
We reluctantly left Segovia (navigating our exit rather better than we had navigated our entrance!) and headed for Escorial. This was my choice. When Spouse said, let’s do Spanish castles, I insisted that El Escorial should be part of the trip. Mainly because back in the dark ages when I was studying A level History my very brilliant History teacher had raved about it. I am also a big fan of Philip II of Spain (who in my book gets a bit of a raw deal from English historians), and I was eager to see the palace he built. Despite his reputation as a fanatical Catholic intent on reconverting the UK (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, I’m looking at you), Philip was a true Renaissance man. The Escorial was built both as a palace and a monastery, and also serves as a tomb for the royal family of Spain dating back to Charles V (another historical hero). I had long wanted to visit it, and reader, it didn’t disappoint.
We arrived too late in the afternoon to visit the palace itself, so wandered around the outside, marvelling at its sheer size as well as the many beautiful knot gardens in the grounds. It was sweltering hot by now, and we found ourselves repairing gratefully to a bar or two. We weren’t at that point hungry, but when we found ourselves at a bar that served chips, we suddenly got peckish. We had however failed to factor in that while the French eat early, the Spanish eat… late. So food was off the menu for the next two hours. Not wanting to keel over when said food arrived, we drank our beer as slowly as we could till the welcome moment when the kitchen reopened!
The next day we visited the Escorial properly. And it more than exceeded expectations. The royal library alone is well worth a visit, especially the main hall which features frescos on the walls representing the liberal arts, as well as stories (mythological or biblical) attached to said art. The crowning glory for me was the fact that foredges of the book are decorated with gold leaf and face outwards, giving a golden glow across the whole room. Sadly you’re not allowed to take photographs, but I’ve swiped one from wikipedia!
The other highlight of the Escorial for me was the mausoleum, which holds the bodies of all the kings and queens of Spain from Charles V, which is quite astonishing. I was uber excited to find Philip II’s tomb, but even more excited to find Charles V. Unfortunately you can’t take pictures of it. But I did sneak in a shot as we entered the room. It felt profoundly meaningful to visit the tomb of two men who had lived so very long ago, but whose influence still lingers.
From the Escorial, we then took a walk down through the gardens reaching the Casita del Principe at the bottom (an eighteenth century royal hangout), which was great, but we hadn’t quite factored in how far downhill we’d walked, or how far uphill, we had to walk (once again in the burning heat.). This time we were prepared for the lateness of dinner, so we had ourselves a welcome ice cream at the top before hoofing back to our strange little hotel to change. It was very cheap and cheerful, but the bedroom was tiny, and the balcony even tinier, which is we found ourselves crouched on it later that evening sharing a beer and a fag before bedtime…
The next day we took ourselves off to Zaragoza which was a bit of a schlep, being a five hour drive, and while there were things of interest to see there (namely an old roman amphitheatre, and a fabulous basilica, overall it wasn’t our favourite place. Apart from anything else, it stank of drains - no doubt the heatwave hadn’t helped there! - and we were quite glad our sojourn there was swift.
Our next destination on the other hand… was just incredible. We’d opted for Pamplona because it was on the way. We hadn’t really factored in that it would be that interesting, given that all we knew about it was the bull run. But it’s a beautiful city, and we really loved it there. Everywhere you go there are references to what makes the place so famous, with pictures of famous bull runners in nearly every bar, tacky bull runner souvenirs, and in places the wooden barricades that are set up when the bull race is on. The bull run itself seems like an absolutely insane thing to do, and it is incredible that a) it’s still going and b) people aren’t hurt more often. But it is also weirdly fascinating, so we ended up walking the route just to give us an idea of what it entails (absolute insanity I’d say) and were quite staggered to realise our hotel actually overlooked the start of it. That year’s race was happening a few weeks after we were there, and when we checked out the prices for bull race week, we realised that this is something we are unlikely to see in our lifetime!
Apart from the bull racing vibe, Pamplona is full of gorgeous mediaeval buildings, narrow cobbled street, has a lively feel and the people are friendly and welcoming. It’s well worth a visit if you’re ever that neck of the woods, and if I were to go back, I think I’d happily spend a few days there. And who knows, if we win the lottery, maybe one day we will managed to see that famous bull run… we sure as hell aren’t going to take part!
We stayed at: