Day 38: Aranjuez

Day trip to Aranjuez. Woke up, and once again, cheated on the train to get there. Its so amazingly easy to not pay the full price on the Cercenias trains (suburban train lines run by Renfe extending from the major metropolises) in Spain, I wonder who actually does buy a full-price ticket!

On first sight, Aranjuez didn’t look like a well-maintained town. Probably lacking in finances. There are places you can tell are richer, and places poorer. For example, Barcelona as a city is definitely not as rich as Madrid – lower security presence, dirtier and urban facilities not as well-maintained. Aranjuez is dirty, strewn with litter, and its numerous monuments and parks don’t seem to be maintained very well – needs more sweeping, more pruning and more repair-work.

But I was pleasantly surprised by Aranjuez. It turned out to be a good side-trip from Madrid, almost as good as the trip to the university town during my previous stay in Madrid a week ago. Its a palace town, and the palace isn’t as big as the one in Madrid, but it looks very nice – pink and cream-coloured exterior. Lots of slightly-old buildings around the palace, not ancient, but with a bit of heritage in them. I like the graceful multiple archways fronting the plazas.

Was disgusted with myself for having two very processed food-tasting processed coffee and chocolate cakes bought from a supermarket (a pack of 3 for 1 euro). Then came upon a bar/cafe (remember, I can’t tell the difference between these in Spain) advertising tapa + beer for 1 euro (the singular of tapas is tapa; yup, tapas sounds much better). It was cheap, and I enjoyed the typically-small glass of beer. The tapa, as expected, was a really small plate of food. The plate would be equivalent to the size of a saucer back home, used to put a cup of coffee on. On this saucer-sized plate were four very fatty slices of ham and two slices of baguette. The ham was salty but actually tasted pretty good. For 1 euro, I liked it a lot. So there. I had my tapas experience in Spain :) In a very authentically-local place, not a word of English spoken, smoke-filled, with a few locals enjoying their food and drinks.

I was happy after the beer, and strolled around liking Aranjuez more and more. I only came upon one souveniour shop during my half-day here, but another reason might be because the shops were closed for siesta/easter break. There were a few tourists around, but other than that, the town was pleasantly deserted and quiet. Very sleepy place.

Paid 2.50 euros to enter the palace, and it was worth the money. This is one of the few times I actually paid the admission fee to enter an attraction, and I enjoyed it. Walked through many opulent rooms, each of a different design. The chandeliers, the quaint little clocks, the chairs, the tables, the wallpaper… all so unique and beautiful in their own way. I especially liked the Arabic-themed room that was modelled on one of the rooms in the Alhambra in Granada. There were also displays of royal wedding dresses, traditional painted fans and etc. Nice.