Two Days In Aranjuez

We left Madrid and travelled aprox. 48km by train to Aranjuez. Aranjuez is quite a small little city but full of culture and beautiful buildings. We arrived about midday so we had alot of time to explore. There were so many fountains riddled through out the city. Sadly, however, most of them didn't work because they get turned off for winter so we saw alot of empty fountain, incredible still however. On the same street as out hotel was a big entrance way thing which was opposite to a fountain. This became my point where I would refer to so we didn't get lost as this always led back to the hotel.

The whole city was filled with arches like the ones on the side near anything royal and old

After this, with our little tourist map in hand we went to the Gardens of Aranjuez. I didnt expect them to be so big, it went on and on and on little paths everywhere. The gardens were right beside the river Tajo and so we could always find ourselves by finding the river. Because it is winter the gardens looked a bit bare, with the only things remaining being the ever green trees. But the walk was still lovely, especially when we got to cross this old bridge and then i found a herd of geese which seemed to like me alot.

 Entrance to the Gardens

 Hedge House in the gardens

The Bridge over the Tajo

My only friends so far....

But wait, there was more...after crossing the bridge mother and I became a bit lost both wanting to travel different ways.  Thankfully we found our way "home" well nearly, we found our way into the palace gardens or the Jardín de la Isla. Here there was this waterfall that ducks just loved to sit on and there were some pretty confusing statues. It would take alot of work to keep the gardens looking nice because there were so many hedges all perfectly cut in shapes and patterns.

 Ducks on the waterfall

 I have no idea what this state/water fountain was so I am going to pretend it is Peter Pan sewing on his shadow.

 Perfectly cut hedges

Is this a naked lady or a Cat? You decide...

By now it was getting dark so we returned to the hotel and just fell asleep even though it was only around 6. That night we decided not to go out for dinner because we were hardly hungry so instead we went to the supermarket and bought bread jamon and cheese all for less than 10 Euros.

The next day we did some more exploring but the highlight was definitely the Palace. We payed entry and we were able to look (no photos) inside rooms of the palace which all had the original decor. The attention to detail was amazing and some of the rooms just caused our jaws to drop.

Outside the palace.

We also went in search of  Joaquín Rodrigo's monument and his grave. Because he was a very famous musician who was inspired to write his famous piece by the gardens in Aranjuez.

 His music written in the pavement

His memorial plaque

The modern art on top of his family tomb.

That night for diner we went to a little where it was only us, we got the meal of the day which was incredibly cheap and we had to dissect the menu. I was able to order for us and he seemed to understand which was good. Over all the food was average but it was cheap and a good experience.