The Royal Palace, Aranjuez

Colonade, Aranjuez
see all photos »

I have breakfast this morning with Grandma and Pinky. Grandma was born in the Philippines but now lives in San Francisco. Pinky lives in Las Vegas but their family lives all over the US. According to Pinky this is the best way to do it. Pinky is married with children but she was the only one prepared to spend this amount of time with Grandma.

Grandma is stocking up with plenty of food for the trip. If she was just stuffing rolls into her bag it would be OK, but slightly worryingly she is packing in rashers of bacon. I mention that in the UK I would expect people of her generation to hoard - but as Pinky points out, the Philippines were occupied by Japan - so her Grandmother would have experienced shortages too.

You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is.

Fishing beside the palace, Aranjuez
see all photos »

I take up my position on the coach behind two young Chinese Canadian girls called Yee and Susan. Driving out of Madrid it’s noticeable how many red brick or terracotta coloured buildings there are. The countryside is vast and flat. It makes me think of Douglas Adams’s description of how incredibly large the universe is – “You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is”. The main crops seem to be cereal, olives and almonds and some vineyards. The landscape is very dry and there’s not much greenery to see.

A lovely cafe opposite the palace
see all photos »

Eventually the landscape changes to rough rocky hills and finally fir trees begin to appear. This heralds the approach of Aranjuez.

Our first stop of the day is at the Royal Palace. It’s early in the morning, which means it isn’t busy. As we walk down towards this beautiful building, I’m rather surprised to find a ruined house, covered in graffiti, just outside its main gate. It seems odd to leave this blot on the landscape.

We have a guided tour of the state rooms. Security here is very tight, with our bags going through x-ray machines before we go in. I was a little worried about a small key I had in my money belt. Luckily it didn’t set anything off.

Facade of the Royal Palace, Aranjuez
see all photos »

The rooms are lavishly decorated, but I’m not impressed by the ceilings. Nothing can ever come close to the frescos I saw travelling through Italy. There is one detail that crops up in each room that I really like – the over the top curtains and drapes, all dripping in jewelled tassels.

There are two special rooms that really stand out in the Palace. The first is an Islamic style smoking room. It whets our appetite for what is to come in Granada. It was a reconstruction of one of the rooms at the Alhambra. All the decoration is made of deep moulded plaster, or stucco. It’s then painted in red, blue, green and gold. The effect takes your breath away.

Royal Palace, Aranjuez
see all photos »

The second amazing room is entirely decorated with porcelain. Our guide explains that it is possible to dismantle all of it and move it to another room – not that they are planning to! The factory that produced the porcelain was blown up by the British during the Napolionic war. The British visitors wince, whilst our fellow travellers tut disapprovingly. Our guide hastily pointed out that Wellington was blowing up Napoleon’s munitions store at the time, so the Spanish forgave us very quickly.

Gardens of the Royal Palace, Aranjuez
see all photos »

At the end of the tour we take a look around some of the museum collections. These feature a lot of costumes and a rather large collection of babies cribs.

The palace has wonderful gardens. There are formally laid out flower beds with great gushing fountains. The whole lot overlooks a river, with reedy banks. In the UK it would have had swans swimming on it but here there is a large flock of geese. There’s also a man standing on the weir fishing. Hidden behind the Palace is a more informal garden. It is mix of wild woodland and formal hedges. The result is a wonderfully cool place to wander or snooze. Most people seem to miss it entirely. They are too busy taking in its showy cousin.

The view from the Palace!
see all photos »

On the other side of the palace is a wide open parade ground with lovely low buildings along one side. These contain cloistered walkways with small flats and gardens above. What a lovely place to live.

On the far side of the parade ground is a bar, where Grandma is having a nice rest. I manage to buy two very good bread rolls (a bit tough though) with wonderful Serrano ham and chorizo sausage in them. The haunch of ham is simply hanging above the bar. The total cost is a very reasonable €3. I take my haul back to the palace gardens and sit on a bench near the river to eat them. I am joined by a Spanish couple who speak no English. Despite this the husband saves me from a nasty sting by brushing a wasp off my toe. It sounds like the Spanish for wasp is Vespa.

Eventually I head back to the coach, but take a few moments to sit on a vast marble bench in the shade outside the Palace. It feels ice cold - lovely.

We are soon back out into the countryside. It slowly turns back to flat plains again. There are virtually no people living in this vast landscape. Everything seems very dry and dusty. However a new crop suddenly appears - sunflowers. These are now past their prime and drying in the hot dry sun. Eventually everything changes again and the land becomes wooded, hilly and green. We arrive in the apparently deserted town of Cuenca.