Holy Toledo!

Warning: this post is incredibly long but also full of amazing wit and charm, not to mention interesting facts. If you can’t handle the awesomeness I suggest you abort now.

All I can say is holy Toledo Batman! What an amazingly fantastical city! So we hopped on the bus at the awful hour of 8:30 (wholly unnecessary because we didn’t even leave until 45 minutes later). I spent most of the trip sleeping on Meg's lap actually, but she was kind enough to wake me as we were entering the city. Our first stop was actually this great overlook that gives you the best view of the city (where all the postcard companies take theirs). So of course we had to get out and take the typical tourist pictures (see below). Toledo is a city surrounded by a river on 3 sides and is actually encircled by a large castle-like wall. The entire day I felt like I was on my way to Mordor.





So our first stop was at El Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, a large monastery that is the burial place for many Catholic monarchs and with a plethora of references to Fernando and Isabel. It has this large chapel inside decorated quite ornately, as can be expected, and then outside is a large square with the center uncovered to make room for this fantastic little garden fully equipped with an adorable well and delicious orange trees. And we haven’t even started talking about the walkways with amazing carvings up the walls. It was a great start to our Toledo adventures. I just love how naturally peaceful and respectful people get at places like that-churches, monasteries and such. It really allows for better focus and admiration of the beauty of it and the work put into the building.



So we went from Catholic to Jewish next at the Sinagoga del Transito right in the middle of the Jewish district of Toledo. It was built in 1366 by Samuel ha-Levi, the Jewish treasurer to PedroI of Castile. At the time it was against the law to have synagogues larger or more ornate than Catholic churches. This man broke all the rules however, with this beauty (ironic seeing as how he worked for the government). Anyway now it is a museum dedicated to Jewish artifacts and such. It was quite interesting to see it all-they don't have any chairs to sit on while worshipping, and it has always been that way! I think that would get tiring. Also what was really cool was that they are actually in the process of excavating under it and finding more artifacts. We just got to peek in, but it was so freaking cool to see! It made me want to be an archaeologist, but I think it would get creepy at times.


After exploring the Jewish quarter we made our way back to Christianity and went to another church-La Iglesia de Santo Tome. Here we saw El Greco's most famous painting-The Burial of Count Orgaz. El Greco spent much of his life here so they commissioned him to paint the death of this man who donated almost all of his money to the church at the time of his death (which was 200 years earlier). This work is pretty dang huge and detailed. Interesting facts about Count Orgaz's painting: it has a self-portrait of El Greco in it (he's the only one looking at you) and also a portrait of his son (by the priests and the Count). Other than that particular work of art the rest of the church was quite beautiful (as can be expected. Oh and here was the first place we encountered this one couple that seemed to follow us or us follow them for the rest of the day.


Our next stop was the Cathedral of Toledo. This stands on the east side of a great little plaza called Plaza del Ayuntamiento and is considered the best gothic cathedral after Burgos in Spain. It took forever to build (but I can see why)-between 1227 and 1493. So now we enter the great and spacious building-literally. You enter in and immediately freeze your butt off for one and then just gaze in awe. They don't let you take pictures sadly so I didn't get any but hopefully I'll be able to remember it. So all the walls are either ornately carved or have large Biblical paintings on them-I never before have seen a larger depiction of Jesus in my life. All around the cathedral are these grand pillars and also these mini-chapel rooms that are caged off. They are actually the tombs of famous monarchs and such. They all have these huge statues in them and amazing coffins. Then when you look in the middle of the whole cathedral you see these 2 caged areas where in one we think the choir sits on these carved seats. Above each one there is a different scene from the Bible and around the whole room there are statues starting with Adam and Eve and ending with Mary and Joseph of Biblical figures. So then moving on you come to the far side of the cathedral where there's this huge sculpture thing that goes clear to the ceiling with angels and different Bible people and such. The best sculpture is centered by a skylight that is surrounded by even more paintings and sculptures. Don't be mistaken by all my talk of paintings and sculptures that this building is particularly colorful. It is actually mostly white and gold. I think it gave the cathedral a very noble effect. And now we have sighting number two of the mysterious couple.



So then all us girls wanted to go on this tour that one of the girls had in her travel book, but we all have apparent problems reading maps and we could never really find the start of the tour. So after an hour of wandering and talking and other such things we all split into 2 groups. My group wanted to go to the Alcazar, but we couldn't really find it. After we finally got smart and asked we found out that it was sort of far thus we gave up on that idea.

Megan had mentioned something from her book that said we could go to this church that is supposedly the highest point in the city and climb to the top of the towers to see the view. So off we went to La Iglesia de San Ildefonso. To tell you the truth I think I liked the inside of this church the best (and not just because it was warm). Everything was more simple and white. After checking out the chapel we then made our way up the creepy, dangerous stairs to the top of the towers. Let me tell you-that view was amazing. We were right near the Cathedral of Toledo so we got a great view of that, but other than that just the city was so incredible. I love the roofs here; I think them alone give the city an older, authentic feel. The view up there was worth any fear I had from climbing those stairs. And to top it all off we saw our tag-along friends here too!






When we left the church we weren't really sure what to do so we wandered a bit more. Two of the girls in our group had read about this torture museum that sounded interesting so we set off to find that-and actually found it! Let me tell you-the streets in Toledo are not made for easy navigation; they are all narrow and similar and just wind oddly. It was quite confusing. Anyway the torture museum was rather cool and gruesome. It had all those olden times devices that they used to torture people into confession or for crimes. I think my favorite had to be a real chastity belt that woman who were travelling alone would wear. It had these intense spikes that I guess were to do some permanent damage on those skeezy men. I don't think after that they would be fathering some children anytime soon. Quite hilarious. I am overall impressed by the creativity of these people-some of those devices were quite inventive, if not gross and unethical. Anyway that was actually a really fun thing to go to. I think I learned a great deal.



So our next stop was for some sustenance because all that walking had us famished. We went to this sweet shop where some people got the famous Toledo marzipan but I stuck with a pastry called Bamba con Nata. It was so freaking good! Picture a pastry filled with the best whipped cream of your life and then topped with powdered sugar and you will have a small idea of the bliss that I had in my mouth. I love all Spanish cuisine (apart from the seafood).


So then our next adventure was to find us a place to get some delicious tapas to satisfy our savory craving. Problem: nothing is open at 5 PM. Do not even ask me why, because that is when I thought people went out for their tapas, but apparently not. Anyway after much wandering and asking for directions we found one. Problem 2: even though the menu said we could order hot things then, apparently the kitchen was closed, thus no tapas for us. So then we went to a little 7/11-type place and got some chips and by that point it was time for us to head back to the bus. Sidenote: they have ham flavored chips here. I haven't tried them but apparently they taste curiously like bacon.

And then we said our goodbyes to wonderful, glorious TOLEDO!



I hope that wasn’t too long or painful to endure. I’m just trying to teach perseverance. Get yourselves ready because Monday we head off to ANDALUCIA! This will be a week of pure awesomeness, I can already tell.