TRIP 3: TOLEDO
Meredith and I left Madrid on Sunday night and took a surprisingly short bus ride to Toledo. Before I start on a report of our actual trip, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the city itself. It's known for the following three things:
1. DON QUIXOTE: Toledo is the capital of the province of Castilla-La Mancha, AKA the place where the novel "Don Quixote" took place. You think Madrid liked Cervantes, with their giant monument? Cervantes is Toledo's god. There are windmills, knights on horses, plaques, and statues everywhere you look.
A statue of the aforementioned gentleman. This must have been the first day because after the first few hours, I just stopped taking pictures of the Quixote-related stuff. I'm over it, people!
These signs were all over the place. I assume they denote places that correspond with events in the books, but there was one right next to a Four Seasons hotel. Somehow I doubt the book reads "And verily, after Don Quixote fought the windmills, he and his faithful companion Sancho Panza stabled their horses and laid their heads to rest at the elegant yet affordable Four Seasons." (Missed opportunity, but product placement was a very new concept in the 15th century.)
2. RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: Due to its centralized location, Toledo has been Spain's capital several times throughout history. It was famed for its religious tolerance-- Jews, Muslims, and Christians living together in perfect harmony-- until the Reyes Catolicos showed up and expelled the Jews in 1492. The Muslims were allowed to stay for another decade, but they got kicked out too in 1502. PARTY'S OVER!! EVERYONE OUT!!
This is a portrait of Queen Isabel, the fairer half of the Reyes Catolicos. My god, even with a portrait artist that had to produce something extremely flattering or risk death, she still manages to look like Droopy Dog. (Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about.)
3. SWORDS/ARMOR: As you might expect from a city that has maintained its medieval walls and buildings, swords and armor are kind of a big deal here. There are countless shops selling knives, swords, shields, and other assorted dangerous metal objects.
Meredith with a large display of swords. My question: seeing as there are so many shops, who on Earth is buying all of this stuff? I can't imagine trying to justify purchasing a $2000 sword: "Well, I do need to protect myself from the neighbor's beagle and all..."
Even more ridiculous, and more expensive, than the swords are the suits of armor. Yes, let me just pop that in my carry-on bag for the ride home! Not like it's a six-foot-tall suit of pure metal or anything.
Now that you're familiar the city a bit, onto our actual trip. (Note that I am not going to list every thing we did, just the important ones, because I am terribly lazy.)
When we arrived in Toledo, we realized that neither of us had thought to print directions from the bus station to the hostel. All the maps that we had brought with us only showed the area of the city within the walls, which was no help at all. Game plan: walk in one direction until we see a wall that looks sufficiently medieval.
Miraculously, our plan worked and we ran into the city walls, pictured above. Now that I look at it, I don't know what the deal is with the shadows in this picture-- maybe the area I was standing at was haaaauntedddd?
The towers on the Puerta de Bisagra (the main entrance to the city).
We found our hostel rather easily (not such an impressive feat, considering that you can walk from one end of the city to the other in about 15 minutes), dropped off our stuff, and decided to walk around the city while the sun set before getting dinner.
The relentless hills of Toledo, while miserable to traverse, make up for it by providing excellent views. The large building you see in the middle is a former hospital, current museum. What is the deal with all these amazing hospitals/libraries/post offices? Getting sick/checking out a book/mailing a letter would be the highlight of a peasant's life.
The next day, we woke up early, ate a nutritious breakfast of bread and Nutella, and left to explore the city and see the sights. Our first stop: the Museum of Santa Cruz. It contains all sorts of historical objects from the city: Roman gravestones, medieval tapestries, sarcophagi, ancient paintings, etc.
The outside of the museum was also amazing (coincidentally, it used to be a hospital as well). Now that I think about it, there wasn't an ugly building in the entire town. I guess one of the perks of being a medieval walled city is that you could completely avoid the hideous architecture of the 1970s.
One of many enormous 20-foot-tall tapestries in the museum. This one depicts Alexander the Great almost drowning to death, if I remember correctly. Just think how long it took them to complete one of these! YEARS.
The famous painter "El Greco" came here to paint something for a church and liked the city so much that he decided to live here. As a result, Toledo is the place to go if you're looking for some El Greco action. I'd estimate that we saw about 30 or so of his works during our time there?
After the museum, we decided to stop and try some marzipan, the confection that Toledo is famous for. It's comprised mostly of sugar and almonds and is, as a result, pretty delicious. To be honest, though, I'd still take uncooked brownie mix over it any day.
I know what you're thinking: what does this picture have to do with the above paragraph? This three-foot-tall castle is made entirely of marzipan. Awesome.
After the marzipan, we headed to the famous Cathedral of Toledo.
Another panoramic photo of the city, this one taken during the daytime. I have about 49054345 very similar pictures, because the hill on which this picture was taken was stupidly steep and I would take any opportunity possible to rest.
On the way there, we passed by one of Toledo's countless monasteries and convents and saw a sign for sweets. If you weren't aware, many convents in Spain actually make their own confections and the nuns sell them out of the convent. It is, as you can imagine, adorable. We thought that we wouldn't be able to afford anything, since they're usually sold by the half-kilo and pretty expensive. However, the sign mentioned something called "Pan de Angel" (Angel Bread) that was only $0.60. Sounds good, we thought, maybe it's angel food cake! We like that! After lunch we came back to the convent and eagerly bought some from the nun. Guess what it was?
Communion wafers. A giant bag of communion wafers. WHAT?! If you are Catholic, you know how remarkably bland those things are. They're basically cardboard... with less fiber. The ingredients on the bag were literally "flour, water". Worst. Dessert. Ever.
Meredith enjoying what might just be the taste sensation of the century. I can't believe we got scammed by Spanish nuns!
After several detours, we finally got to the Cathedral of Toledo in the afternoon. I've seen my fair share of cathedrals in Spain, so I wasn't expecting to be impressed much. Yes, yes, crying Mary, dead Jesus, I've seen it. However, it was definitely my favorite cathedral we've seen so far. It's a crazy mix of architectural styles because there were so many different architects over the years it was built. Factor in that their overall architectural motto must have been "FIVE OF EVERYTHING!" and there's a ton to look at.
The outside of the cathedral. There's a Gothic tower on the left (mostly out of the shot due to size), a Mudejar cupola on the right, and a huge Neoclassical entrance around the corner... seriously, guys, pick one style and go with it.
Another reason I liked Toledo's cathedral was because they had a "Treasure Room" which served the dual function of housing all of their most precious objects and making me feel like a pirate. It was really unbelievable: there were 12th century swords that were later owned by Franco, some of the first bibles ever printed, and enormous jewelry that church officials used to wear. (Let me be the first to say that those dudes invented bling.)
The main treasure of the treasure room: you really need to see this in person, as it looks much less impressive in photos. This gigantic solid gold-and-silver object covered in jewels is paraded around the streets during the festival of Corpus Christi. It's stunning, but goodness knows how they carry it. Note Meredith in the right corner for scale.
We stayed in the cathedral until about 7:00, then headed back to the hostel to rest for a bit before dinner. We had a television in our room (though they called themselves a hostel, it was definitely a hotel) and watched some truly perplexing Spanish television for a bit. A little before nine, we decided to leave to see if there was anything going on in the city for Semana Santa. We had the ridiculous fortune of running right into a procession!
Christ being raised on the float-- it was too big to get through the church doors upright. If you are wondering what in the hell is going on in this picture (goodness, I know I would be), just wait a few days for my update about Semana Santa. Let me just say that it is awesome and we don't have anything in the U.S. to compare it to.
The next day, we started off the day by visiting the Jewish quarter of town and Toledo's synagogues. (Fun fact: there are only three medieval synagogues still standing in Spain, and two of them are in Toledo. Funner fact: I've seen all three!)
Ancient Jewish objects from the Jewish Museum inside one of the synagogues. Incredibly cool!
After leaving the Jewish Quarter, we decided to check out the bridge built by the Romans on the east side of town. It was both bigger and more-remodeled than I expected.
The bridge (see person in the bottom right-hand corner for scale).
The last big thing that we saw in Toledo was the Monasterio San Juan de Los Reyes. It's a giant monastery built by the Reyes Catolicos (yes, the same ones who kicked out all non-Catholics). It was intended to be the place where they were buried, but one of their grandkids decided to build them a huge tomb in Granada. Which I also have seen! I am all over Spanish history!
A picture from the first floor of the monastery. Heck, I'll totally devote my life to God if it means I get to live here!
Can you feel me running out of steam? It's getting terribly late and I'm getting progressively tired and cranky. Long story short: that night we ate some food and saw more Semana Santa processions. The next morning, we headed back to Madrid, then caught a bus back to Seville. Luckily, we planned our trip so that we would see the craziest days of Semana Santa in Sevilla: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I'll leave that until the next post!