Did you enjoy your visit to El Escorial? Or do you agree with Augustus Hare that while the Escorial "is so profoundly curious that it must of necessity be visited, it is so utterly dreary and so hopelessly fatiguing a sight that it requires the utmost patience to endure it".

I enjoyed our visit to El Valle de Los Caídos. El Escorial is pleasant, but it is the visit to Franco's monument that haunts me. It is interesting to actually see current Franco supporters who arrive with flowers to place on his grave. The history of his regime and its brutal effect on thousands is something that I will never forget. It is an incredible place with a tremendous sense of tragedy and sadness set in a scenic, peaceful forest.