Today's trips...but no falls.

Buenas Noches everyone!
Today was a busy day of travel after a long night (well, for me) of exploring Madrid. We packed up early this morning and headed off the La Valle de Los Callidos (a cathedral/tomb/something indescribable) and then stopped by Esquitorial (a lovely little town in the mountains (freezing and covered in snow, but nice) that houses a royal monestairy/university/royal hunting lodge all rolled into one. Though the scenery was breath taking, it was freakishly cold (I think I saw a negative degrees sign somewhere) and we arrived during the middle of the day (which meant that all the smoke free shops were closed and it was either sit in a smoky cafe (like, thick smoke!) or freeze outside. Even when I walked out to get some air, people would be smoking! (feeble attempt to keep warm?) Now, I know, I know, I shouldn’t be such a whiner, and normally I really don’t have a problem with it, but there was literally no escaping it! After a while, a headache, sore throat, and stuff nose took up residence in my body...SO! I’ll make this quick. I’m going to hit the sheets (that smell like smoke, kid you not!) early tonight to try to sleep some of this off. Oh! I think I’m dehydrate too, water is not freely available in public fountains, and every time I ask for it in restaurants, they bring me bottles...I just want icy tap water! A jumbo glass of icy tap water! I’m sure its fine! I drank out of the tap in my hotel room without a problem...
okay, focus on the positive Michelle! (its the cold speaking) umm... . Thank you Mom for convincing me to bring so much cold medicine. okay, right! Today:
La Valle de los Callidos is a Cathedral carved into a mountain near Madrid. It was commissioned by Franco (“please turn to pg. 539 in your history books. General Francisco Franco was a member of the Spanish Republican party when he assumed control of Spain during the Spanish Civil war. Due to the periodical proximity of the war to WW2 and remaining resistance by Democratic party members and tribal warfare in the Basque country, Spain was unable to participate in Hitler’s Axis (of evil), as the country’s fighting age men were part of the resistance, attempting to control the resistance, wounded, sick (with Spanish influenza) or dead. Times were, as some scholars would deem it “hard and/or messed up”. (oh! side note, Spain’s Republicans are the progressive party much like USA’s Democrats, and the Democrats are like Republicans...)) Okay, where was I? Right! So, due to the Civil War, Franco had a lot of POWs and corpses on his hands, So! he built the cathedral at La Valle de Los Callidos (the valley of the fallen) to house the thousands of caskets, and put his POWs to use. Now, when you look (please!) at the pictures, its hard to get a good idea of just how huge this place is. On one of them, you can actually get some perspective because some visitors happened to be standing in the “entrada” when I snapped the photo. Now, the reason why I mention the size has to do with the fact that it is a Catholic Cathedral. According to belief, no cathedral is allowed to be bigger than the Vatican in Rome; however, Franco’s complex was considerably larger (hehe, double meaning! anyone? okay...) By the time the Church announce that it would not recognize the church, the inside had already been completed (carved into a mountain). At that point, it was a bit convenient to change the inside, so he halved the size of the courtyard making the ...massive...thing just under the size of the Vatican while keeping his enemies busy for just a little while longer. Now, no pictures were allowed inside, so I’ll attempt to describe it to you: it was a cave, so there was no natural light and little of any other form. Several dark themes played into the construction and style of the building. If you’ve ever seem the Sound of Music and they run through the dark convent at night with the Nazis chasing them? Oh! and they sang at the concert hall? Yep, exactly like that. Angles took overly-masculine stances and held incredibly large swords. The crowning piece of art work was the “ Angel of Death” Due to the amount of light in the cave, you couldn’t see his face at all, just a dark hooded figure. I went into one of the chapels, lit a prayer candle and hummed “this little light of mine” just to make for a slightly more positive atmosphere. The walk through ended and several members of the group ran for the exit (myself included).
After that, we headed for the picturesque mountain town of El Esquitorial, which houses a huge Monestairy/University/Cathedral/Mausoleum for the Royal Family/ and Hunting lodge for the kings. The place is literally 9 acres of hallways, staircases, perfectly manicured gardens, fountains, and everything a gouty king (hehehe) could wish for. It was AMAZING! To boot, we had one of the funniest guides I’ve every encountered (Like the Spanish version of Cowboy Mike). Anyways, the place was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed to preserve the artifacts and the privacy of the monks and students.
Whelp, you’ve heard about the rest of my day, so I’m headed out! I love you all! Have a great rest o the week! bye!

here's the link for the photos
enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15279&l=1740d&id=1323450019