Excursion to Aranjuez

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Geo: 40.0321, -3.60329

After a domestic morning we took a 50 minute drive south to Aranjuez to see the 18th© Royal Palace (original bits from the 16th©😉. Wonderful Apple Maps stored detailed directions for the whole trip. It was a dream. Not so good coming back when we lacked the internet connection to upload the return journey! The Mini has GPS nav, but not as good.

The toll roads were terrific but with scarcely any vehicles using them. I reckon the country went broke building these huge roads, and then charging unaffordable tolls to use them.

The Royal Palace, it's grounds and ancillary buildings covered a huge area. Luckily it is not in a major centre or the land would have been gobbled up for other uses long before now.

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Photos

Palacios Real
The side facade

Palace Gardens
Parterre garden bushes by the thousand. Must be an army of pruners in the growing season.

Palacios Real
Front facade, clearly modelled after Versailles.

Palace Gardens
Very pretty, with fountains everywhere.

Plaza San Antonio
The long corridors reminded us of Angkor Wat.

Comments

[Morag]

Yeh, and thankfully they all have the same measurements! Would love an aerial view

[Tony Speed]

what's the economy like in Spain? Are the shops busy?

[robselclark]

Fair go! I was halfway up a tree to take this shot.