I haven't been to Toledo for over ten years, and was really excited to return! The past two visits to the city had been on guided tours, and it was absolutely wonderful this time to have the complete freedom to go at my own pace, visit only the sights I found interesting, and explore the city without the worry of paying attention to a tour guide. I had a great day here, starting with the trip from Madrid. Last time I went to Toledo it was a bus trip of over an hour. Now, however, there is cheap high speed rail service here and I arrived in less than half an hour for just ten bucks (round trip ticket)!
The train and Toledo's train station:
One of the things that makes Toledo stand out is the combination of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish influences on the architecture ad neighborhoods. Before the Muslims and Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, the three faiths coexisted in relative peace throughout Spain, and there is no better place to truly explore this than Toledo.
Enjoy the following pics from Toledo, a truly amazing town that many people consider Spain's "little Rome" and one of the most "Spanish" of all the country's cities.
First I went to the Museo de Santa Cruz, a 16th century monastery that now houses a FREE (music to my ears...) art museum. To be honest, I ended up much more interested in the architecture of the building than the art they had in their collection... A beautiful example of the Mudéjar style, a name given to the combination of Christian and Muslim art styles. The carved wood vaulted roof of the building was spectacular, and the cloister had this totally random staircase that was intricately carved and simply beautiful. Check it out:
Then I went to Toledo's cathedral. Ground was broken in 1226 and it was completed in 1493. It is just immense. No pictures allowed inside, however. Since taking non-flash pictures would somehow damage the inside of the cathedral...... Dumb.
Surprise view of the cathedral tower looking down an alley:
After the cathedral I needed to take a walk, so I just decided to wander. It was at this point that I almost choked to death on the street. Seriously. I had bought a little piece of mazapán, Spanish candy made of finely ground almonds and sugar. It was really good! And totally not anything that would normally cause someone to choke. For some reason, though, I accidentally inhaled my last little bite and had a crazy coughing fit complete with not breathing for a minute right there on the street. In a town crawling with tourists, I had also chosen what was probably the only deserted street to almost die on. So as I started this hacking fit, in the back of my head I was thinking that I could maybe run to a restaurant I could see in the distance and burst inside, clutching my throat.... Luckily, the out of control coughing caused the mazapán to disintegrate in my throat. Unluckily, mazapán is made of ground almonds and sugar... So I spent pretty much the rest of the day occasionally hacking up granulated almonds. Knowing now that I survived it, in hindsight... I should have YouTubed the attack!!!
At one point during the walk/almond recovery I stumbled upon a really nice overlook of the Río Tajo, the river that surrounds the city. Very pretty view to look at while heaving forth a cluster of sickly-sweet almond powder!
I then went to the Sinagoga de Santa María la Blanca, a Jewish synagogue-turned-Catholic church that was built in 1180. It is considered to be the oldest synagogue in Europe that is still standing. It is now just a historical building and not a house of worship. It is beautiful and very strange to be in a building that is 831 years old and has been used by two completely different groups for worship. I loved the tile floor with little Stars of David and the carved wood rafters.
Then I found a shady plaza and had a tapa and a tosta con jamón y queso- toast with ham and cheese. Very nice!
After the break I went to another synagogue. But this one was "only" built in 1355, so it was much less impressive (haha)! Again, really cool wooden roof and Hebrew engravings on the walls. There is a museum attached and the thing I thought was coolest was a stone over a thousand years old from a Jewish settlement that had been excavated. You can clearly see a Menorah carved on it.
Can you see the menorah?
Then I was in a Catholic sort of mood again (you can pick and choose these sorts of things in Toledo) so I went to the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes. This was where the Catholic Monarchs Fernando and Isabel had planned to be buried, but when they conquered Granada (a MUCH bigger prize), they decided to be buried there instead. But they left behind a "souvenir" from Granada. They took chains that the Moors had used to confine their Christian prisoners from the battle for Granada hung them on the outer walls of the monastery. So you look up at this building from the street and see these shackles and chains that had been hung there about 519 YEARS AGO. Again, totally boggles the mind. The church inside was really impressive. At one point all the other tourists left and for a few minutes I had the whole church to myself, which was soooooo cool.
This place's cloister had really cool sculptures... All original to the structure.
LIONS:
GARGOYLES!!!
A CAT GARGOYLE! How fun!
THE CHAINS! THE CHAAAAINS!!
At this point my camera died. I was only able to snap one more picture... Of a rack in a torture museum. The museum was filled with really neat things used by the inquisition to extract confessions from people accused of not being Catholic. Those proven to be of a different faith and who refused to convert to Catholicism were burned alive at the stake. Neat.
The rack:
I followed up this museum with some more walks around town, including at the main square, which comes complete with a "17th century McDonald's.". BOOM.
I wanted to visit a historic mosque - the are two, but they were both closed that day! I also visited a few sites, like a famous El Greco painting in a church (El entierro del Conde Orgaz), but no photos allowed. Bummer.
What a great day. All I can say is, I LOVED Toledo!
