View of Toledo rooftops
Toledo cathedral
the high altar in the Toledo cathedral
typical Toledo street
Monastery San Juan de Las Reyes
Sue and Cheryl with Cervantes in the middleBefore today's visit to Toledo, we spent our last full day in Madrid visiting the Royal Palace and the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The palace was described in a guide book as having the most lavish interior of all European palaces, including Versailles. We all thought this sounded a bit OTT until we actually saw the amazing chandeliers, beautiful furnishings, tapestries, porcelain decor etc. The Reina Sofia houses Picasso's amazing Guernica, painted during the Spanish Civil War to portray the horror of the bombing of the city of the same name. Franco gave Hitler permission to use the city as a guinea pig to test saturation bombing - an horrendous story.
Today we took the train to Toledo where we started our visit with a scenic taxi ride with a driver who had aspirations to be travel guide. We saw lovely panoramic views of the city -see photos, before being dropped off in the old Jewish quarter. Then down to business. We visited the San Juan de los Reyes monastery, built provocatively by Ferdinand and Isabella as a symbol of Catholic supremacy after the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492. We then visited the small Santa Maria la Blanca Synagogue, so named as it was converted to a church, and the larger del Transito Synagogue with Sefardi Museum. The day was rounded out with a wander through the El Greco Museum, and the main sight of the city, the Toledo Cathedral. Before catching the train home, the 3 girls stopped at a damascene shop run by 80 yr old Simon who still makes the gold inlaid objets d'art himself.
Today we took the train to Toledo where we started our visit with a scenic taxi ride with a driver who had aspirations to be travel guide. We saw lovely panoramic views of the city -see photos, before being dropped off in the old Jewish quarter. Then down to business. We visited the San Juan de los Reyes monastery, built provocatively by Ferdinand and Isabella as a symbol of Catholic supremacy after the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492. We then visited the small Santa Maria la Blanca Synagogue, so named as it was converted to a church, and the larger del Transito Synagogue with Sefardi Museum. The day was rounded out with a wander through the El Greco Museum, and the main sight of the city, the Toledo Cathedral. Before catching the train home, the 3 girls stopped at a damascene shop run by 80 yr old Simon who still makes the gold inlaid objets d'art himself.
Back in 1979, when Rodney and I visited Toledo, we were stunned to encounter a little SEAT bouncing down one of the steeply stepped alleys towards us....
ReplyDeleteKeep having fun, crew - it's reviving all sorts of memories for me.