A long hop across the Mediterranean brought us to Madrid from Sarajevo with a brief layover in Munich. In keeping with this season of reunions, we are in Madrid to visit Janet, a long-time friend and nursing training classmate of Sandra’s and her Spanish husband Celso who had moved from Sydney to Spain almost 40 years ago. After losing contact for several decades, Sandra and Janet had reconnected and we met up with Janet a year or so ago in London when she was visiting her children and grandchildren living England. 



Having been to Madrid several times before, we could avoid most of the usual tourist activities. But we couldn’t resist visiting a couple of Spain’s many royal palaces, now mostly museums. Madrid’s Royal Palace is just a short walk away across the Plaza de Espana from the centre city apartment we’ve rented for a few days. Last time we were in Madrid, we’d missed out on visiting the Palace’s interior - and a truly stunning, extravagant and over-the-top interior it is. Makes Buckingham Palace look like a suburban mansion - the Spanish monarchy in its heyday really knew how to spend money and project power! The Palace is now mostly a museum and is only used by the government and king for ceremonial occasions - like for instance when King Juan Carlos signed his abdication decree in 2014 in favour of his son, now King Felipe. The Spanish government agency which manages the royal palaces does not allow photography of the palace’s palatial interior and rooms and it’s even hard to find photos on the internet. Just encourages sneakiness....and presumably more purchases of the official guide!!

As if one Palace wasn’t enough, we readily agreed to Janet’s suggestion to spend a day visiting another - the Palace of Aranjuez, a spring-and-sometime-summer-getaway palace on the banks of the River Tagus, some 60 km south of Madrid. Smaller than the main hang-out in Madrid, but with an interior equally as sumptuous and over-the-top and just as off-limits to photography! A big difference though was the lack of crowds or in fact almost the lack of anyone! A few locals and school groups but virtually no foreign tourists that we could spot - guides to Madrid would seem to rightly describe this Palace as “rarely visited”! And it’s not just the Palace, but also extensive, although not particularly well-maintained gardens (there British palaces definitely win out!) and a museum of extravagant royal boats and barges from a bygone era which reinforce that this palace was more of a fun palace and holiday home - somewhere to escape from the formality of the Madrid palace although certainly not an escape from ostentatious extravagance! 

For anyone thinking of making the short journey south, don’t miss out on an excellent long (liquid) set lunch at the “Green Frog” across the street from the palace but also on the banks of the Tagus. Perhaps not quite “fit for a king”, but certainly helped to make our day even more enjoyable.....