Vamanos a Aranjuez

Last Saturday I planned a (mini) adventure and I think it went quite well. For those of you who aren't quite fluent in Spanish (or choose not to watch Dora the Explorer) the title of this post can be translated as "We're going to Aranjez." Aranjuez is a small town 35 minutes outside of Madrid. I'm a huge fan of my Lonely Plant guidebook and it suggested Aranjuez as an excellent day trip and a pleasant way to enjoy a few hours. Aranjuez is famous because it is the location of the Royal Family's summer palace. While all of my images of Britian conjure up Kings and Queens, I have to consistently remind myself that Spain, too, has a royal family.

In any case, I decided that I wanted to go to Aranjuez and convinced a few friends to come with me. We wanted to take the "Strawberry Train," which is a historic train where people in period costumes hand out strawberries during the journey. Apparently it's very cool. However, the train was full and we couldn't get tickets. I was nearly devestated, but Spain has EXCELLENT public transportation and the real train journeys to Aranjuez every 20 minutes for only 6 euros round trip. So, I got over my disappointment and we took the metro to the next stop and hopped on one of the high speed trains.

Aranjuez is very dry (everywhere we looked there was dirt without grass), but the palace is HUGE and draws a ton of madrilenos looking to get out of Madrid for the day. I don't think it's super popular with foreign visitors because most people choose to stay in Madrid or, if they really want a day trip, go to Toledo. It felt very authentically Spanish (whatever that means) and we elected to take a guided tour of the palace. We had a bit of time before the tour so we snacked on our "bocadillos" or sandwiches packed for us by our host moms and then explored the gardens. You would never know that Aranjuez doesn't recieve a lot of water by looking at the gardens. There were lots of dirt paths shaded by large trees and surrounded by low hedges. I think it was very English in style, but I don't know very much about gardens so don't quote me. Every 40 feet or so the path we were on would widen and we'd be in front of a small fountain with a statue of a greek god or godess. The atmosphere was very restful and certainly would have been quite a luxury at the time of the garden's construction.

Our guided tour was super interesting, but a bit exhuasting as well. It was, of course, in Spanish and our guide rapidly moved us from room to room as she explained the palace's history. My favorite room was the smoking room - about the size of a south common room, but decorated in an Arabic style. The walls were decorated in mosaic tiles and I think the guide said it was a replica of a certain part of the Alhombra. It was breathtaking and everyone in the room laughed at the thought that such a magnificent room had been built simply to provide the king a place to smoke.

After the tour we were starving and set out to find a cafe/bar outside of the tourist area. Cheaper and more interesting. We wandered for a bit before asking a random woman on the street if she could recommend a place. She was incredibly kind and walked us to her favorite bar. She even gave us the bar's history, telling us that it was owned or in homage to (couldn't quite follow the whole story) by a musician who just happened to visit Aranjuez and liked it so much that he decided to stay for a bit and created a song named after the city. The bar proved to be a good choice - yummy and inexpensive and we all recieved a free piece of chocolate from the nice bartender who laughed good naturedly at our inability to decipher the menu and then, after we knew the options, to make a decision.

All in all, a good trip.