Grammar is a Dominatrix and Other Things Learned in Monasteries

El Escorial de San Lorenzo is about 50 minutes by bus from Madrid and is well worth the trip.  It is a monastery that is remarkably focused on stuff not related to monasteries.  Which kind of makes sense, since the building was also a royal palace and a university.  The palace rooms are now devoted to Goyas and El Grecos and some reproductions of paintings that are now in El Prado.  Also flemish tapestries.  I'm pretty sure that the spanish monarchy had a monopoly on flemish tapestries at one point.  El Escorial also happens to be the last resting place of the spanish monarchy.  And they're slightly obvious about it.  Their crypt is incredibly creepy.

The audio guide doesn't help much.  Let's suffice it to say that there is needless bell tolling.

On a more religious note, which is probably more apropos considering that this is a monastery.  The cathedral is gorgeous.

It is the official royal basilica for the spanish monarchy and it is awesome.  It's an absolutely massive space that kind of sneaks up on you as a result of the organization of the grounds.  Which is a fact remarkable in and of itself.

Finally, the tourist comes upon the library.  On the celling are painted the nine virtues of humanism: grammar, rhetoric, artithmetic, geometry, astronomy, literature, philosophy, psychology, and history.  Grammar is my favorite.  She's the one with the whip...
In addition to a dominatrix-y grammar, the library is super awesome and home to texts that are up to 500 years old.  That's back when people hated writing, so it's very cool that stuff has survived.

We got back to Madrid with enough time to hit a museum, so we went to El Museo De Trajes or the Costume/Clothing museum.  It's a gem.  It's a shrine to spanish clothing and it is incredibly interesting.  It's all in spanish, but it's a very visual museum so that's not too much of a problem.  Definitely worth the visit.