The gardens are enormous, much bigger than La Granja, but not as nicely designed. The palace is on the river, but the gardens couldn't be contained so there are bridges over the river allowing the garden to sprawl over the other bank. We walked for about an hour through the garden, but it soon started looking more like a nature reserve as the gardeners ran out of things to do with all this space.



Aranjuez is known throughout the country for two things, asparagus and strawberries, and Madrilenos flock here on weekends just for these. We stopped at a grand cafe outside the palace for lunch, and of course ordered asparagus and strawberries (separate courses), just like everybody else. Surprisingly the asparagus came from a can and the strawberries were frozen, so I didn't really see the point.