El Escorial

It can take awhile for El Escorial to sink in. We spent the entire day in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about an hour's train ride from Madrid. Phillip II spent all the gold in South America to build the immense palace and monastery that dominates the mountainside here. I quite honestly don't know what the students thought of it. The language is muted, the building is stark, mute and austere. Perhaps tonight it will sink in.