This Royal Palace was impressive to say the least. It is the largest palace in Western Europe with 3418 rooms and one of the largest in the world. We had to navigate through several large groups of students queued up for the visit. At one point a group of second or third graders ran towards us yelling like the little kids they were and they then surrounded us. We had to stop and let the stampede pass us by. We got the guided tour and found it to be most enjoyable. Some tidbits of information: 700 clocks could be found in the palace, the floors are cut marble, one set of embroidered silk wall coverings were so elaborate that it took 50 years to complete them, the King's bathroom is made entirely of porcelain one of only three in Europe. The dining room can seat 150 people for a banquet. It took a team of 50 people an entire day to set the table. There was a room devoted to the display of the royal silver. Philip V melted down most of the Spanish-Hapsburg silver to finance a military campaign. The tour lasted an hour and a half and it toured through the highlights of the palace. The kitchen tour was a separate tour and is only offered in Spanish so we did not book it. However at the end of our tour an follow tourist offered us a pair of tickets for free. She said that her kids were too tired but we think they may have been sick. On our free tour of the kitchens we got cooled down as it was chilly down in the cellar areas. Pictures were allowed at the entry way of the palace but no further. But when we got to the kitchen I was happy to hear that pictures were allowed here. No pictures were allowed of the tour guide I found out the hard way when she yelled at me! This tour lasted another 45 minutes and we . were out of the Palace by 2:30 PM. Time for lunch.
The mounted police were mounting up as we arrived
Three horses in a row
Then the guards decided that since we were there, it was time for a change.
Why the spinning rifles, was this ever a safe thing to do?
The three different kinds of guards
One of the Spanish Kings with a lacy garment trailing behind
The cathedral is in front of the Palace
We are about to enter the same way that carriages entered of old
Charles IV at the head of the stairs.
The coat of arms
A menacing lion as a reminder that the King has bite
The ceiling of the main entry way is designed to impress
It does just that
The next room into the Palace
This portrait took 20 years to complete. No one can vouch for the likeness anymore as the subjects no longer look like that.
The light that comes in from the round windows is perfect
The chandeliers have their own stories. This one came from France and it weighs 100 kg. There is another one that weighs 500 kg
This bronze is a series of statures depicting the heavens, the sun, the moon, Venus and the like. Here is the sun checking to see if the armpits are stinky
The Moon is flexing
Charles V defeating fury
Not a flattering look
Another impressive ceiling
Here is the Sun
And Venus
Detail of the fresco
Great patina
A hallway where I snuck another picture
The inner courtyard
Down in the kitchen we found one of the first electric food warmers
The controls look vary old
So many forms for puddings
The huge stove / oven
For grinding of items
An impressive mold
Laid out for ease of use
There is a section on the bottom for adding warm coals
One of the first refrigerators
The scale is hard to determine but these pans are huge
A telephone for faster service
More cookware in the cabinets
I think this was for the hot chocolate
Another innovation installed by Alfonso XIII a veggie washing station
A serious chopper
To the left is the rotisserie oven, you can see the pulleys on the sides
Wood for the ovens
All the various tools for putting things on the rotisserie
There is a big crank for rotating the food on the spits
Coal in the coal shoot
Stamped as property of the King
Dusty bottles of wine
A better storage solution
The Royal picnic basket
It has been 297 days since we began our Migration
