Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Our bus was five stops away on the metro and it was all relatively easy to find, despite the lack of signage for idiots. Our journey was a cool 50 minutes on a very comfortable coach/bus. Like the royal palace this place is difficult to capture entirely at ground level. So I stole this photo. I thought it best to post this first as the photos to come would otherwise have little context. It was difficult even to photograph the facade, so I didn't bother.