Our first night on our trip from Spain to England we stayed in a town just north of Madrid because it was the right distance and they had a Parador there. We love the Paradors of Spain. They are a chain of hotels owned by the government and are all historic buildings that have been renovated. Some of them are from the 1500's.
Here's a picture of the inner courtyard.
Anyway, we arrive in La Granja de San Ildefonso to find that there is a castle there. And, not any old castle. One used as a summer palace since the reign of Philip V. It's uniqueness comes from the fact that Philip was the grandson of Louis XIV and he wanted to create a Versailles of his own in Spain.
So, not only did he build this huge castle but he also created gardens that rivaled Versailles, encompassing over 1,500 acres and incorporating hundreds of fountains, walkways and even a maze.
Our Parador, just down the street, had been the Prince's Palace and was lovely with very comfortable rooms, a great restaurant and even a spa.
So, after a lovely afternoon which started with a great lunch at an outdoor cafe and ended with a stroll through the gardens, we felt we had been given a great farewell from Spain.
The remainder of our trip thoroughly enjoyable. We saw many storks sitting on their nests with their young peeking over the edge, fields of bright red poppies (no pictures as it's difficult to get a picture when whizzing by at 80 miles an hour) and many, many fields of mustard (these I could get as there were so many of them).
We ended up in Calais where we spent the night. We then took the ferry to Dover in the morning to start the next leg of our adventure. On to London!
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