Here we go: An update so big, it requires 2 parts! I took quite a few photos in Toledo, and I'm excited to share them. Edit: If you want to either see any of the photos in much better quality, just click on it. From there, you can also save the photos.
After spending the two days in Madrid, we were asked to be in our hotel lobby by 9:30am the next morning. This was an interesting endeavor as it turned out, because the elevators in this hotel were absolutely tiny. They said they could hold a maximum of 8 people, however, when I was in the elevator with 8 people, it didn't move until someone got off. ISA (my program) was taking up almost the entire hotel. Not just ISA Granada (me), but also ISA Salamanca, Barcelona, and Sevilla. There were about 200+ kids in this hotel, all needing to be downstairs at the same time, with tiny elevators and TONS of luggage. Yikes. I ended up helping a number of people carry their luggage down manually. It seemed that the smaller the person, the more luggage they had. Some people had 3 big pieces of luggage. I only packed one. I heard through the grapevine that one girl brought a thing of luggage solely containing shoes. She brought 16 pairs of shoes to Spain. One-Six.
Just let that sink in for a minute.
Anyway. After finally corralling all the kids in the lobby, we head to our buses and take the 50ish minute trip to Toledo, a town I knew nothing about aside from the fact that they make good knives. When we got close, our guide woke up those that slept and we were slapped in the face by an amazing view of the town of Toledo.
This view was breath-taking. You can tell that I enjoyed it by how many redundant photos I took of it. This is one of the things I came to Europe for; the small town, "Cheers" feel (everyone knows your name). The town is walkable one end to the other in maybe 40-45 minutes. The streets are very compact (yet you can drive full speed down them, more on this in part 2). I don't know what else to say here. Picturesque.
This is where our walking tour began. I guess this is the city limits of Toledo. Not much behind where I'm standing for this shot other than huge cliffs. We're about to walk across this bridge.
A shot taken while walking across the bridge.
The above two shots are on the archway leading into the city, at the end of the bridge. They show the crest of Toledo. Every city has their own crest with symbols that reflect the history of the town. I believe Toledo's crest has an eagle and a sword...could be wrong here. Granada's crest has a granada, which literally translates to grenade, but I believe it's just a pomegranate.
Hard to see, but theres a cat under this tree. Lots of felines walking around the streets here.
Our first stop upon entering the city. Two girls had to pee, and they used this little cafe. Our directors informed them to buy something. It's not super polite to use bathrooms here without buying stuff. Later this day, when people in my group did exactly this, I ended up buying a coke from the bartender, who shot "stupid american" glares at me, and took 2.50 of my euros : (
Our first real stop on our tour. This church is a big landmark in Toledo. Quite frankly, I don't remember everything the guide said about it, but the chains on the outside (easier seen in the top of the two photos) represent people that fought...for...the...church? Man, my memory is terrible. There's some story there, though. Hooray for being vague!
Entering the above church, San Juan de los Reyes.
Beautiful courtyard that housed an orange tree. Turns out these are super popular in Spain.
Really detailed ceilings that depict the eagle, swords and (if I remember correctly) bundle of arrows that make up the crest of Toledo.
One historical statement here that I'm going to butcher: Spain is known historically for being a land of multiple cultures. Granada is known as "la ciudad de las tres culturas" (city of three cultures). At one point, there was a large number of both Christians, Jews, and Muslims that all had locations across the country. The south eastern part of the country was where most of the Muslims (Moors) entered the country, and many of the buildings reflect their existence here. Something very traditional of the Moorish architecture is the use of circular archways. You can somewhat see here that these archways are somewhat half-circular.
Toledo is essentially shops like this every 10-15 feet. So many cafe's, bars, knife stores, etc. Really cool.
Stopped in this park to the right. Pretty quaint, decent view, and a little tiny kiosk shown here, vending water and drinks.
I laughed at this, and I don't even know why. Vacas = cows.
Park!
A view of a garden from the park.
That's it for now. Hopefully I will be able to post part 2 of Toledo tonight. I think that part will be quite a bit more interesting (it involves a crazy cab ride!). Off to wander the streets a bit. Hasta luego
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