Toledo is not a very big city due mainly to the fact that it is surrounded on three sides by the Tajo River. But the fact that it is built on top of a small mountain can make walking up a street a rather difficult task. Its labyrinth of tiny, cramped, streets are in many cases the very same ones that existed during the Middle Ages. I have wanted to go here since arriving in Spain and I was amazingly able to get the entire city done in one 11 hour day.
I had to wake up at 7:00am in order to shower, eat, ride the metro to the Atocha Train Station and then finally catch the earliest train that leaves for Toledo on Saturday at 9:50. I just barely made my train with a mere 5 minutes to spare and we were soon on our way. The ride was only 30 minutes thanks to the high speed Renfe Trains that run all over Spain, so we were there in no time. To be perfectly honest, I was not the happiest of campers that morning as I had been up rather late looking up various recommendations of what to do and what to see, but my mood instantly improved upon seeing the train station. I know it may sound kind of silly, but seeing cool architecture in unexpected places makes me really happy.
Toledo Train Station Clock Tower
Inside the Toledo Train Station.
Once I was out of the station, I pulled out my trusty Lonely Planet Guidebook and flipped to the map of Toledo only to discover that the train station was somewhere just off of the bottom right hand corner. So I decided to follow some of the other tourists who had gotten off the train with me and they eventually led me to the Alcantara Gate, one of six that lead into the old city.
Shot of the old city and the Alcantara Gate/Bridge
Shot of the newer city/expansion and the Tajo River.
Alcantara Gate
The views of the city from this entrance were just amazing. You can see the river and ruins of some of the ancient settlements along the banks and even some old bridges.
View of the old city, city walls and Alcazar, the Medieval fort.
Once I crossed the bridge, I began the slow, steep climb to the city itself. Although the path was paved with cobblestones and was essentially just a glorified staircase, it was no walk in the park to make it to the top.
Archway over the pathway leading to the city. This path in particular actually followed one of the ancient city walls.
After a while, I made it to the top and began trying to get my bearings. The book and map were a little too cumbersome to navigate from where I was, so I decided to head towards the nearest tourist office which was also by one of the cities largest landmarks, the Cathedral. As I wound my way through the tiny streets, I grabbed a few photos of some of the more interesting buildings.
Cool house that faces the newer part of the city.
This photo is just for you Dad! Now I've found you roosters in Asia and Europe.
After a while, I made it to the cathedral which looked as though it had literally forced its way into the very heart of the city as countless streets began and ended less than 5 feet away from one of its towering stone walls. As I walked around the massive building, the city was just coming to life (remember, it is only about 10:45 and Spain really does not get rolling until 11:30-12:00). There were only a few tourists here this early in the morning which I really liked because it allowed me to see that actual people of Toledo. I saw shop owners opening their doors, sweeping their stoops and unrolling brightly colored awnings. Cute little old ladies were wobbling up the steep streets with sacks of groceries in their hands, dark greens and fresh baguettes peaking out over the brim. As I walked past a particularly nice shop, a monk, in full dress, walked by and began talking to the owner and I could not help but smile at this little scene unfolding all around me.
Eventually, I made it to the main front of the cathedral and was able to locate the tourist office which was in the same square. The woman at the desk was fluent in German, French, Italian, and Spanish, but only knew a little English. After she gave me a map and circled a few of her favorite things on the map, I asked a few questions and through a complicated series of disjointed words and phrases and elaborate hand gestures, I was ready to go.
This is the main tourist office. Yeah, I know.
Shot of the Cathedral from Plaza de Ayuntamiento
Close up of some of the exterior carvings.
I decided to see the cathedral first as it was right there and immediately set off to find the actual entrance. I ended up almost entirely circling the thing before arriving only a few hundred feet from where I began. The entrance fee was a little steep, 7 Euros to be exact, but one I got inside, I understood why.
Main entrance to the Cathedral.
Now I must give you a warning here. I may have gone a little too picture happy in this place, but it was just so cool. The architecture was amazing, the paintings and colors were so vibrant, and this was one of the most up kept cathedrals I have ever been in. The entire thing was really just stunning and had certain elements that may make it my favorite cathedral in Spain.
Stained glass along one of the many vaults in the ceiling
Main Altar Piece. All of the gold you see is actual gold leaf and there are over 50 different statues nestled into the 30+ alcoves.
Main clock and secondary entrance to the Cathedral. That clock has a sister that sits on the other side of the wall, facing outside.
Entrance to the Chapter Chamber
Chapter Chamber. The upper paintings are of the life of Christ while the second and third rows depict Saints and other religious leaders.
Okay so this thing was my favorite part about this cathedral. It is called "El Transparente" and consists of two main parts. This part is the main altar piece and depicts the Blessed Virgin and child with various angels surrounding them
This second part is a fresco painted on the ceiling that ties directly into the altar piece and culminates in a beautiful skylight around which you can see statues of archangels reaching right out of the fresco. Looking closely, you can see that the mural actually bends it's way around some of the other architectural elements of the cathedral, giving the illusion that this thing is actually real. In all, the piece is known as the Apotheosis of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Fresco on the ceiling of the Sacristy.
Bishop's Robes in the Sacristy
Beautiful gold leafed book from inside the cathedrals treasury.
View of the Main Chapel from the front doors.
Entrance to the Mozarabic Chapel. I just really liked all the colors and designs, so I thought I'd share.
Huge painting of the Savior with a child. The reason it's tilted is because the bench I had to lean on to get the shot had a tilted back.
Beautiful organ inside the Choir
Seats inside the Choir. Each seat back depicted a different city scene and each armrest was of a different animal.
These were the walls of the choir. Each of the columns rested on one side of the choir seats.
View of the main altar from inside the choir
Beautiful Stained glass and architecture inside the cathedral
The Cathedral's rosary window.
By the time I left, I had been there for over an hour and a half which, to me was not all that surprising considering the size of the place, but I had places to go and things to see. So I hustled my way down the street I had supposed would eventually lead to the church of Santo Tome, but I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way, because I got lost and ended up at one of the city walls. This was all well and good though, as I got a really cool shot of the houses across the valley, and I had the chance to sit down and get my bearings once again.
Welcome to the human maze that is Toledo.
Beautiful vista across the river from the main city.
Amazingly, I found my way to the church and was able to get in to see the most famous painting by El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. Admittedly, I did not know hardly anything about this artist prior to my little trip, but his name kept coming up in all of the books and tour guides I saw, so I decided to do a little research. Doménikos Theotokópoulos was a painter, sculptor and architect of Greek Origin who lived and worked in Spain during the Spanish Renaissance. He received the nickname El Greco because of his heritage and his rather difficult name. One of the main things that distinguished his work from that of other contemporaries is his use of almost surrealist aspects in his religious paintings. Even later surrealist artists such as Salvador Dali used techniques originally pioneered by El Greco. Sadly, There were no photos allowed here but I did get a picture of the chapel and was able to find a great picture of the painting on the internet.
Church of Santo Tome
Chapel of the Church of Santo Tome
The Burial of The Count of Orgaz (obtained from Wikipedia 8/30/10)
After this, it was onto my first Jewish site, El Transito Synagogue. This place dates from 1366 and also houses a museum of Jewish History in Spain. It was pretty cool to walk around in, though I realized that a lot of the architectural elements I would have normally identified as Muslim in origin are not quite as exclusive.
Main Hall of Worship, shot from the Women's gallery which sat above the second level as they were not allowed to participate in certain religious ceremonies.
The Synagogue from inside the courtyard
Hebrew letters on plaster tiles that have fallen from the ceiling and other parts of the Synagogue
After this Synagogue was done, it was time to head on to the Santa Maria La Blanca Synagogue. This one was from the early 1200s and was honestly a little underwhelming as it was only the main room, but the archways and ceiling designs were cool. The highlight, however, was seeing a little sign on the outer walls indicating that this synagogue was on Don Quijote’s route through Spain.
Front of Santa Maria La Blanca Synagogue
Beautiful archways, nave and honeycombed columns
I really lucked out to get only one person in this photo as people seemed to come out of nowhere whenever held my camera up to my eyes.
Door to the Synagogue. I really liked this because of the eight pointed star, just like the one that is all over The Conference Center.
Don Quijote Tail Marker.
The next stop was the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, a 15th century monastery with a beautiful juxtaposition of gothic and Medujar architecture. It was originally built for the Spanish Monarchs in 1467 and is known for its beautiful cloister. This place also quickly became a bit of a problem when it came to limiting my photos but it was really just so beautiful that I could not resist. The best part of the whole thing was that a wedding had just ended when I bought my ticket so the place was nearly devoid of tourists, making for some excellent photo opportunities.
Exterior or the Main Chapel. If you look closely, you can see that there are actually chains with manacles hanging about half way up. Relics from the Spanish Inquisition? I like to think so.
Beautiful Gothic window looking into the cloister garden, complete with orange trees.
I just loved the seeming superfluity of having two doors, one only slightly smaller than the other, right next to one another.
View of the Cloister through a cool palm tree
Main Chapel and High Altar from the nave
Cool columns and archways supporting the high, vaulted roof.
Roof of the Main Chapel from the second floor of the cloister
Beautiful wood inlaid ceiling on the second floor of the cloister
Close up of the wood ceiling.
With the two major cathedrals done, I decided to take a little detour along one of the city walls to see some of the ancient gates and bridges. They were all really quite something to see in person, though I must say, my Nikon did a pretty good job of capturing these particular shots. It was nice to take a little break from the hurried pace I had been keeping since I’d gotten off the train and I eventually strolled back into the city to find it almost completely empty. I’d remembered reading about the Spanish Siesta before coming to Spain and how it is especially intense outside of Madrid and Barcelona, but I had never imagined anything like this. The streets had an eerie abandoned feeling to them and there were stretches of time where I would not see another person for a good ten minutes.
Cambron Gate
San Martin Gate and Bridge
Cool Church I happened upon in my wanderings
Old Seminary Building not open to the public
I soon realized that attempting to see any sites before 4pm would be fruitless, so I decided to do as the Spanish did and settle in for a nice, leisurely lunch. Lonely Planet recommended a little place called El Cafe de Las Monjas which turned out to be very delicious. I had the ham and cheese tart and a slice of their famous marzipan tart. I'll talk more about Marzipan later, suffice it to say that for the time being, I was very happy.
Even after my leisurely lunch, I still had some time to kill until 4pm when my next destination, the Santo Domingo El Antiguo would open. So I decided to take a little walk to some of the lesser points of interest that were listed on my tourist map.
The first place I came to was the convent of San Antonio. This convent is known for making the best marzipan in Toledo and Toledo is known for making some of the best marzipan in all of Spain. So one would naturally assume that this place would have the best marzipan in all of Spain. I didn’t get to find out right away, however, as the place was closed, but they did have this cheery little sign right outside their main door. The second place was a little chapel which is supposed to have dated from the time of Muslim occupation of Spain, but had been rebuilt several times over and, in all honesty was not remarkable in any way, so I have not included a picture of it here.
Sign outside the Convent of San Antonio
By this time, I was able to start heading in the direction of Santo Domingo, but as I made my way through the tight, little streets, I got hopelessly lost and ended up circling the place for almost 20 minutes, trying to find the main entrance. At this point in the day, it was blazing hot and my dogs had been barking since I let the restaurant, I had had two little Spanish kids speak rapidly and laugh at the fact I was lost and so I was not super thrilled with the relative difficulty in finding this place.
Cool house that goes over the top of the road and is only supported by old, wooden beans
My perseverance paid off, however, and I did find the place, only to be scolded by a nun for not having exact change. She sent me away to go and break my 20 euro note and some nice teenagers at a little restaurant up the street helped me out. When the boy handed me my change, I could not help but laugh at what had just happened, so when I returned to Santo Domingo and handed over my exact change to the nun, I did so with a huge smile on my face. This place really was not all that special either, save only the fact that El Greco is buried underneath the Choir, and even that was a little disappointing (they had literally dug a hole in the floor and inserted a window so you could see the bottom half of his tomb, but only when the nun had flipped her little light switch so as to make sure there were no photos taken).
Bell Tower of Santo Domingo El Antiguo
Main Altar of Santo Domingo. The Choir and tomb of El Greco were right behind me while I took this photo.
With that fiasco behind me, I headed down to my main Muslim site of the day, Cristo de la Luz Masque. This place was closed all day on Saturdays, which I knew, but I wanted to get some pictures of it and of El Puerta del Sol which was nearby. I also took a little walk outside the city walls and took some photos of the city itself from a little park which was nice and relaxing.
Cristo de la Luz Masque
La Puerta del Sol
View of the city and city walls from the little park across the street.
Shot of the Masque and La Puerta del Sol
My second to last tourist stop of the day as the Santa Cruz Museum which was free to the public and housed some paintings by El Greco, a number of beautiful tapestries and some rather simply painted pottery. Prior to this museum visit, I have never really appreciated the time and effort required to make a tapestry, but for some reason, the ones hanging here had a really profound effect on me. Two in particular depicted stories from the life of Moses, the fiery serpents attacking the Hebrews and then the worship of the golden calf. Seeing the exquisite detail of these things and the fact that they were all woven and not painted, really impressed me for some reason. Everything was really quite beautiful, save only the pottery which looked as though it was pained by random people in their spare time, but some of the pieces were rather intriguing.
Entrance to the Santa Cruz Museum
Tapestry of the Hebrews worshiping the golden calf
Courtyard of the Museum
One of the better pieces of painted tile
At about 7:30, I ducked out of the museum and headed off the gift shop I had visited earlier and purchased my souvenir shot glass. As I was paying the girl, I realized that I had not yet eaten an actual piece of Marzipan. As most of the places that sold this treat exclusively were closed for the day, I headed back to the place I had been to for lunch as I remembered them having several pieces on display. The woman there told me that this marzipan was actually made at the San Lorenzo Convent and as such was the best I could get anywhere. I was a little skeptical at how amazing this stuff could be with a 1 euro price tag for something so small, but I became a believer after my first bite. It was the most simply delicious thing I have ever tasted. It had a flavor so delicate and so complex that I cannot put it into words. Although my feet had been hurting all day, I was not aware of anything but how happy my taste buds were until I finished my little piece of joy. It may well have been the best euro I have ever spent.
My very own little piece of Marzipan
This was the window display of the little cafe. The dolls dressed as nuns show all of the steps involved in making marzipan.
And my final stop of the day was none other than the Alcazar. This medieval fortress has been built and rebuilt several times over the centuries and today stands as one of the main monuments of the city. Inside is the National Military Museum which is, in a word, massive. They have everything from guns, to suits of armor, to bazookas, to mini figurines, to flags, to jousting sticks and just about everything you can possibly think of that would have something to do with the military. I wandered this place for close to two hours and still did not get to see everything, but this was just as well considering I saw more than enough weaponry to last me a lifetime.
The Alcazar
Much like the Acropolis Museum in Athens, this one is built over the top of the ruins of ancient settlements and even the original foundations of the fortress.
Courtyard inside The Alcazar
With my time running short, I found a little place right near the city center and had some dinner. It too was quite delicious, though not quite as much so as the marzipan. Once I’d paid my bill, I headed towards the train station and was greeted by a spectacular sunset, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Church spire catching some of the last rays of golden light
Cool angular statue of Don Quijote just outside the city center.
I know the pictures don't do it justice and part of that is due to the fact that, yet again, my camera died right when I wanted it the most. But my Dad once told me that it is sometimes better for moments like that to just live on in our memories because there they can be become even more spectacular than even the most perfect picture ever would have been.
And so, 80 pictures and over 2500 words later, that was my trip to Toledo one of the first capitols of Spain.
3 comments:
I am so jealous of you!!!! Hope your trip is amazing!!!! How did you get involve with this program?
Tom -
I spent the better part of good weeks searching for international teaching opportunities that were volunteer based and finally stumbled upon GeoVisions: www.geovisions.org. You should definitely check them out if you are interested in doing this at some point. And thanks for reading!
OH, My goodness these pictures are wonderful, just incredible. It makes me feel like I am already there. See you soon. Love, Mom
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