Hello MadridMan. I have a question, did you get your Spanish license yet, or are you driving with the US license + internatinal permit?

When I arrived to Spain from the US at first I used my US license and drove like a tourist, but at the end I had to get the Spanish "Permiso de Conducción".

Estopa1, I'm always the passenger. I haven't driven yet since arriving in Spain at the end of December 2005 - because I don't have my license. (I want to get my Spain drivers license in the next year but I'm not in a hurry) I think we discussed drivers licenses for United Statesens in another thread so we shouldn't go off-topic here.

Saludos, MadridMan

How close is the Valley of the Fallen to El Escorial? My brother and his wife are visiting and my suggustion was to go everywhere by train or by bus. You can take guided tours but I don't think you need to, everything around madrid is well connected.

Estopa1,
Thanks for the info. I think we'll end up taking
a taxi. We'll be spending 7 days at El Escorial
and our accomodations are just a short walk from
the Monastery. I hope to catch a few sundowns from there. Not an early enough riser for sunrises :-)

gls858

MadridMan,
Yikes 48 euros for a parking ticket! I guess they figure they might as well make it worth their time if they're going to all the trouble to
write one Did you go to the Casita de Arribas?
I think the place we are staying is very near to
it.

gls858

gls858, that ticket was HALF the price of the parking ticket we got just the day before (actually, the same morning when we found it) in Madrid. They don't mess around with these new Parking Meters throughout Madrid (or anywhere else). It's a real money-maker for them - OBVIOUSLY! Besides, they don't even WRITE parking tickets anymore. They all have these PalmPilot-like devices where they only key in the license place number and VOILA! Instant printout ticket - spreading cheer and good-will to all. Cha-CHING!

We didn't go to La Casita de Arribas because we didn't have time. When we passed by on our way back through it was already past sunset and getting dark and the Sunday traffic back to Madrid was getting heavy.

Saludos, MadridMan

MadridMan i am amaze to hear they have not put up better signage there still. I went there in 1990 and its true very little signs going back to madrid and actually going there at that time:i park just near where you describe too but no ticket just a flat tire cost me 16 USD to fix same day.Sept 1990.

To Tim Hortons Man:

The Valley of the Fallen is about 8 miles from El Escorial. You need to take a bus or taxi to get there.

I don't think you will have time to see both places completely on the same day, but you can try. If you arrive at El Escorial at about 1000 hours, then visit the Monastery inside takes about 2-3 hours. Then you can have lunch between 1300 and 1400 hours in the town, and after that take a taxi to the Valley of the Fallen arriving there at 1500 hours. Then you can spend 3 hours to visiting the complex. The Valley closes at 1800 hours.

To gls858:

7 days at El Escorial!!! Wow. I think that is too much. In 3 days you have anough time to see everything there including the surrounding mountains, but anyway you will have a great time. Enjoy!!

A link to the Wikipedia page about El Escorial:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Escorial

Just wanted to thank everyone for the help. My wife and I just returned fronm our trip last Sat. We had a GREAT time. The info I got here helped a bunch. Thanks again.

To Estopa1: I agree 7 days at Escroial is more than enough but we got to stay at this villa for FREE for the 7 days we were there. Two days we took the bus to Madrid (a whole 6.40 euros for two tickets) and spent the day there.

http://www.villavacations.com/spain/madrid/sanlorenzo/sanlorenzo_prop.shtml

http://www.elsolvillas.com/sov_property.asp?PropertyID=708

http://www.spain-select.com/detail_villa.asp?id_villa=243

Also by staying at Escorial I managed to strike up a friendshiip will the proprietor of a small bar called El Brillante. My Spanish is poor and his English was nil but we still managed to communicate LOL.

gls858