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Aranjuez: Spanish royalty’s springtime hideaway
South of Madrid, Phillip II's vast palace gardens are an oasis of green in barren central Spain
The vast palace Philip II built at Aranjuez is imposing without and "astonishingly lavish" within – but it is the gardens surrounding it that are the "real glory" of the city, says Anthony Jefferies in the Daily Telegraph.
Lying just 30 miles south of Madrid, at the confluence of the Tagus and Jarama rivers, Aranjuez was traditionally the home of the court in the springtime, when it bursts into dazzling life, a "small island of greenery in the barren plain of central Spain".
The "vast formal gardens" surrounding the palace itself are lovely enough; but the wooded parkland of the Prince's Garden is more beautiful still, a "natural wonderland" in perfect harmony with the neoclassical mansion, the Real Casa del Labrador, at its heart.
EasyJet flies to Madrid. Trains from Madrid to Aranjuez cost €2.90 one way. ·
