One final day-trip from Madrid before moving our homebase to the medieval town of Segovia, and we visited one of Spain's most picturesque imperial residences at the small town of Aranjuez, home to a stately summer palace with vast riverside gardens and a magnificent hunting lodge from the early 1800s.
Like our previous day-trip destinations of El Escorial and Alcala de Henares, Aranjuez's stately landscape of formal gardens and tree-lined boulevards is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in fact one of five in the vicinity of Madrid if you also count Segovia and Toledo. It was the effortless accessibility to so many worthy destinations -- plus great tapas bars of course -- that made Madrid one of my favorite European cities.
A quick 45 minutes from Madrid Atocha on the Cercanias commuter train, sleepy Aranjuez is a deceivingly spread-out town with royal estates and gardens extending along a sinuous stretch of the Tagus, plus historical housing for aristocrats and knights scattered all over town. Upon arrival at Aranjuez Station we started our day with a cheap taxi ride to our farthest sight, Casa del Labrador, before covering the 4km distance back to the station on foot.
Tragically ignored by the vast majority of Madrid's tourists, Casa del Labrador is among the most obscure of Spain's royal residences, a comparatively petite yet gloriously furnished country house hidden at a far corner of Aranjuez's royal gardens. Visitations are only possible through scheduled tours -- for an incredible price of just 5 euros! -- with very limited spots, and given only in Spanish on most days. Arriving on a weekday we booked ahead for a Spanish language tour that we would not have understood, except that no other visitor showed up ...
Visitors were so few that the two of us formed the entire tour... and so the curator simply switched to English! From panelled walls of luxurious silk brocades to 2000-year-old mosaic floors plucked from ancient Roman villas across the Mediterranean, everything was simply beyond decadent. No photos were allowed, but we vividly remember the mind-blowing workmanship on a centuries-old mechanical clock in which a time-telling gemstone would spiral up a golden column, at one revolution per hour, until reaching the apex at the twelfth hour and slide back down to the bottom. You have to see it to believe it.
After the hour-long private tour we continued west towards arguably the most photographed spot in Aranjuez, the Estanque de los Chinescos featuring a wooded, serene pond adorned with a graceful Chinese-influenced pavilion reminiscent more of the Tholos of Delphi than the Temple of Heaven of Beijing.
Now converted into a public park, Jardin del Principe is lush, vast and thankfully tree-lined as we did our best to stay in shade under the midday sun. Baroque fountains grace major intersections of broad paths originally designed for horse carriages and now exploited mostly by the park's new residents.
Peacocks and Barbary ducks freely roam the grounds, apparently enjoying their new status as modern day royalty and forcing their human subjects to the side of the road. Further towards the river bank are orchards of pomegranates, a stone's throw from the section of Tagus River once utilized exclusively by the royal family for their pleasure cruises.
It took a good 60 minutes to finally reach Jardin del Principe's main entrance at its southwest corner, now within sight of Palacio Real and just north of the town centre and its wide selection of restaurants. We would stop for lunch before heading back to Madrid.
Compared with full-fledged tourist towns such as the popular El Escorial, Aranjuez's offerings for 3-course Menus del Dia turned out astoundingly cheap especially in the vicinity of Mercado de Abastos, the town's traditional covered market. As ubiquitous and boring as Huevos Rotos may be, you would be hard pressed to find a better deal, steps from a major tourist attraction, elsewhere in Madrid.
Huevos Rotos con Jamon or a bowl of chilled Salmorejo for appetizers, the above pictured Iberico Pork Rib or some deep-fried Calamares Frescas for mains, Flan or Natillas for dessert, plus choice of wine or beer, all for an impossible 9.5 euros per head. This was in fact our cheapest 3-course meal in Spain.
Bill for Two Persons
| Menu del Dia x 2 | 19 Euros |
| TOTAL | 19 Euros (CAD$28.5) |
Visiting the Palacio Real wasn't in our original plan until I took a stumble while attempting a selfie, and the Palacio's staff were kind enough to take me in so that I could wash my wounds. So I did get an ... ahem ... accidental glimpse of the interior courtyard even though sightseeing was no longer a priority at that point.
This wraps up three easy and memorable day-trips from Madrid, each with its own highlights: the panoramic view of El Escorial from Parque Adolfo Suarez, scrumptious Rosquillas followed by a fantastic lunch at the university town of Alcala de Henares, and the splendor of Casa del Labrador here in Aranjuez. While my eyes preferred Aranjuez and my stomach vouched for Alcala, you really can't go wrong with any of the three.
No comments:
Post a Comment