After arriving in Madrid, we used it as a base to go visit a bunch of neighboring towns as day trips by train. Our first one was Segovia and La Granja:

with a fast train, we got there in around 1H

Segovia is known for its Roman Aqueduct

we followed the aqueduct to its destination where you could get water

Quaint spanish towns have good food :)

We went through the Catedral de Segovia and its viewing tower:

Nice views around town:

The town also had a jewish quarter and some more museums:

After being done with Segovia, we took a cab to La Granja for its Royal Glass Factory:

After about 1H in the museum (which was worth a bit more), we had to leave to go to the Royal Palace of La Granja of San Ildefonso:

I hope they're not about to have sex, this looks questionable

very big gardens

sadly, they sucked and turned off all fountains for the season despite it being Oct 6th

and that was that, very nice palace and gardens. After getting kicked out of the gardens, we had just enough time to get a taxi back to the train station.