Valley of the fallen, Franco and the civil war.

on the third day we went to a part of the country that is very controversial to spaniards, but also is gorgeous and breathtaking, I really just wanted to hike the whole area. When we were driving to the valley of the fallen I realized just how much this area reminded me of Tahoe and Lake Shasta. The auburn colored trees and the soil and the bright green hills, and the beautiful sunny day of course , was very similar to this part of California, made me miss Tahoe :)

The controversial part of this Church is that Fernando Franco was buried here underneath it and built this church so that it would be his burial area. Right near the alter is his tombstone with flowers on it. Our tour guide told us that a lot of people won't even come into this church (including our bus driver.) And some people go to his tombstone, put one foot over it, and say "you stay down there" to him. Also 50,000 soldiers' remains are buried in separate rooms on each side of the alter, and 97% of these soldiers are unknown. The church itself was beautifully constructed and made out of 100% granite and decorated with beautiful murals on the ceilings and sculptures all over. But it still had a very eery feeling and honestly just had me creep-ed out a little. In the entrance of the church, their were two huge tall sculptures of angels with swords, and smaller ones with capes inside the church on the isles up to the alter. Kind of reminded me of the dementors in Harry Potter (Just to convey to you what kind of creepy feeling I actually had...) Our tour guide also said people sometimes get married here. Sounds like a horrible start to a marriage to me! "Honey let's get married on top of the dictator who killed thousands of people and started a civil war, it will be a perfect way to symbolize our new life together!" Very strange. Could almost feel ghosts in there, but again very beautiful, historic, and spiritual.