Una cruz, El Escorial, y Valle de los Caidos

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while! I can't believe I have already been here for two weeks!!! Basically my week has consisted of wandering the city, doing homework, dancing, and more homework. I really haven't done anything worth mentioning this week, except for today. We went on our first "excursion" to El Escorial and Valle de los Caidos which are really close to Madrid. El Escorial was the first place we went and it was so cool! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside which I thought was stupid, but I followed the rules unfortunately.
Here is some of the outside of it:
To the left of this picture is the entrance to a school for children, and to the right of this is the entrance to the Monastery:

 This is the side that has the Monastery:

El Escorial is a palace, bacilica, and Augustinian monastery. The bacilica is so pretty! I walked in and it really looks a lot like Westminster Abbey when Will and Kate got married. It was so beautiful! AND! the good news is that they have weddings there for the cheap price of about 2,000 Euros. We actually saw a wedding there today, not the actual wedding but after when they were taking pictures in front. We got to go inside about an hour before the wedding and it was so pretty. I loved it. The ceilings were all hand painted by Cambiasso and Giordano and they were so cool! I can't imagine being on scaffolding and looking straight up to paint, and doing it well. The palace portion of it has not been used in many years and is now a museum basically. The only thing that I really thought was interesting was a room that has all of the coffins of the Kings and Queens because they have two requirements you have to meet to be in this room if you are a woman. First, you have to have been married to the King that is ruling, and second is that you have to have had an heir to the throne. I thought that their rules were interesting because many of the Kings had multiple wives but for all of them, only one wife was in this room because there is only one heir basically. Anyway, there was one King and Queen that basically had their roles reversed. Queen Isabel (Elisabeth) II was the ruler and her husband was not. So, in this room with all of the coffins and stuff, they have her with all of the men who were Kings, and him with all of the Queens. We were told that people suspected that he was gay because he was very feminine, and wouldn't  "have sexual relations" with Queen Isabel. But, they both had other people they went to for that..........
On a different note... we went to Valle de los Caidos (translates to Valley of the Fallen), which is the HUGE cross that is near Madrid.

It is as tall as 1.5 football fields if they were standing up. We didn't get to get close to it today but we got to see the "church" that is literally inside the mountain right under the cross. I put church in quotations because this was a place that Fransisco Franco ordered people to build, and was later buried there along with Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. Every year on the day that Fransisco Franco died (October 20th) people would gather at this "church" to celebrate his life and basically worship him. There was a law passed that makes this illegal now, but people still go there to pray to him and such. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside again which really annoyed me. It was beautiful, but really intimidating because all of the sculptures were of archangels, but they were really dark and creepy basically. There wasn't really any sign of warmth in there which was odd to me. But, the one thing I thought of that I couldn't stop thinking about was that this would be the perfect place to sing with a choir! The acoustics were AMAZING!! Valle de los Caidos also happens to be a Benedictine Monastery so they are basically the choir that sings there during the Sunday church service. It was really cool to learn about and to go see, but I don't think I would want to go back to the "church" because it was so creepy. I really hope we get to go back and climb all the stairs to the cross though because that would be amazing to see up close. It is so cool to see, even at a distance. I'm really excited for this week because we get to go to Madrid for the weekend and I can't wait. I am really hoping for a McDonalds over there cause I need some fast food. HA! Who knew I would miss that!

Anyways, I can't wait to get my package of food from my momma! I miss you all and you better get skype so we can talk! Love you!