Toledo

Today was our first big outing. We all hurriedly got ready to go and meet at the school at eight forty five in the morning. It was pretty over cast and extremely cold and windy but thankfully not raining. So we all got on the bus and headed about thirty minutes outside of Madrid. It was interesting driving through the outskirts of the city because it reminded me a lot of the outskirts of LA. As long as you are within the heart of the city it is nice but as soon as you start to leave the neighborhood becomes more and more run down. There is graffiti everywhere, which makes me wonder if we are just much stricter about cleaning it up in California than they are here.

So as we started to get close to Toledo we could see this beautiful city on top of a hill. Toledo is one of the only medieval cities left in Europe. It was designed by the Arabs who first inhabited it, and then they were joined by a large Jewish community. They lived together until the Spanish Catholics, led by Queen Isabella, took over the city. The layout of the city is especially medieval because the street layouts were designed to confuse their enemies if they were ever able to invade the city walls. Toledo is also known for their sword craftsmanship, there is a very large river that surrounds the city and its cold temperature is crucial to for their ability to create their swords.

As we got near to the city the bus randomly pulled over and a woman got in; apparently she was going to be our tour guide for the day, so there ya go. She sits down and introduces herself to Kiren, Sian and all of us. By the way, Kiren and Sian (pronounced like Shawn) are our AIFS reps, Kiren is a disheveled British guy about 25 so he of course reminds me of Harry Potter and Sian is a 22 year old British girl; they're both amazing. So Carmen gets in and starts telling us about the town and we drove past the city to go way up on a hill that overlooked the city so we could see the whole thing. As we were driving up Carmen told us that the houses here are very large and expensive country estates. The manors that overlook Toledo are almost double the price than those that don't have a Toledo view. The terrain is very high desert, a lot of cactus and olive trees. So as we were driving through these hills it was very beautiful and desolate at the same time because they are having a much longer winter than they are used to. We reached the over look and the bus pulled over so we could get out and take photos. The view was absolutely breath taking and I took a ton of photos just overlooking the city.

Then we headed back down towards the wall around Toledo and stopped at a factory that made swords and silver and gold engravings. It turns out that this little workshop was so famous for their craftsmanship that Peter Jackson had them create all of the swords for the Lord of the Ring films. We were able to get a tour of the workshop and saw a man heating and shaping a sword blade, and then we went upstairs so we could see some people doing the hand engravings. From there of course the tour ended in the gift shop; I was able to buy some beautiful little trinkets that were actually created in the workshop.

Next we got back on the bus where they took us to the escalator. Yes, there is a giant set of escalators that take you up over the wall and into the city. We also were able to see the section of the Toledo wall that fell during the huge rainstorms they had last week, luckily it was only a very small section that collapsed but it was still sad because the wall is over 500 years old. So we took the escalators up into the city and saw a great view of the newer Toledo and the surrounding countryside, mostly olive trees. The tour guide led us through the small winding streets and alleyways until I was sufficiently lost.

We stopped outside of a giant cathedral that Queen Isabella originally wanted to be buried in because she was so taken with Toledo, until she obtained Granada which she loved more. The Cathedral walls actually have shackles bolted to the outside of the cathedral walls. These chains were found on Christians who were being held captive by Muslim forces in Granada when the Spaniards invaded and Isabella had them sent back to Toledo so no one would forget. Some are missing from the time of Napoleon's invasion; his troops removed a large majority of the chains so they could be melted down and made into cannon balls. This church is the one of the most popular wedding locations in Toledo and there is at least a two year waiting list.

From there Carmen took us to the synagogue, the oldest one in Spain. When the Christians took Toledo they removed a large majority of the decorations from the walls but the architectural features remained. The interior design is actually designed to look exactly like the Mosque of Marrakesh. What I thought was really interesting is the columns and walls are decorated with intricate designs of 8 point stars and pine cones. The pine cones represent fortune and good luck and there aren't any stars of David because they weren't used yet for their religion. The synagogue isn't used today because the entire Jewish community was removed by the Christians and they never moved back to Toledo. However, Jewish people still come from the country side to use the synagogue for important ceremonies so the traditions are still kept.

After this we walked to another church. Going through all of the streets and alley ways Carmen might as well have blind folded me and spin me around so I wouldn't know where I was. In this church we saw the burial of an important Toledo citizen and above his grave we saw an El Greco fresco. The Burial of the Count of Orgaz is considered one of El Greco's best works. He represents the burial of the count by the two saints. He also shows a small boy at the count's side – this is his son, in his pocket is a piece of paper, on which El Greco signed his name. Behind the saints are the town's nobility you can see Greco himself looking out of the portrait. And above them all he has painted the heavens accepting the count's spirit.

So after this we spun around some more and wound up at the Toledo Cathedral. It was giant! It was especially huge considering the small town and the winding roads and then to have this enormous cathedral right in the middle. It has a giant tower and a dome, the tower was actually designed by El Greco's son who was a famous architect. Within the cathedral it was very open and made entirely of granite – the natural rock around Toledo. The interior reminded me a lot of Westminster Abbey, probably because most Gothic Cathedrals are designed the same way, after Notre Dame. In the very center of the cathedral is the choir because they are considered the voice of the cathedral and therefore the most important. The alter itself is very large and decorated with saints as well as Jesus on the cross with the two thieves he was crucified with – this is very unusual to see. Then we walked into a smaller gallery where they had a large majority of their art collection. Here they had most of Greco's paintings, a Raphael, a Pousin and a few others. Then as we walked throughout the rest of the cathedral I noticed red hat things hanging from the ceiling, these turned out to be the Cardinal's hats who had been buried in the cathedral. After this Carmen took us back to the main square so we could get some lunch.

For lunch a group of us went to eat at an outdoor café that boasted paella and pizza – an odd variety for sure. I had a jamon y huevo sandwich where they cut a hole out of the bread so you can see the yolk of the over easy egg. From here we walked around for a few minutes to do some shopping, we went into a bakery that was famous for their marzipan, marzipan is one of the most common deserts in Toledo because it is surrounded by almond trees. After a while we walked down the street and took another set of escalators down the other side of the wall to our bus. The bus ride back was nice and I immediately fell asleep until we pulled up at our school.

After we said good bye most of us went back to our apartments for naps. I can't really nap in the middle of the day so I read. Later that night at about ten a few of us decided to go find this tapas bar that everyone said was the best, El Tigre. So we got on the metro to take us to one of the bigger stations, Sol, the stop before Sol a big group of people pushed onto the train and I checked to make sure my bag was entirely zipped up and I held onto it. However, when we got off the train sure enough one of the very American looking girls had had her wallet stolen. We found a fairly quiet corner of the station so she could call and cancel all of her cards. Unfortunately because there was no violence and she was only pick pocketed the police can't do anything. So after about an hour we decided to keep going with our quest for tapas. We walked around until we found it and it was packed. I have been in a lot of very crowded bars and places but this beats everything hands down. We pushed and shoved and couldn't physically get anywhere, it was fascinating. We finally made it back outside a half hour later and took a breath. We walked back up the street a little ways and found a little café to eat at. Some other people met up with us there and we ordered some wine and the bartender gave us some plates of tapas.

Tapas really mean "to cover" they were created to cover your glass of wine to keep the flies out. We had slices of ham on toast with a red hot sauce, toast with tomato and sardines, and a plate of pickled potatoes. Then a few of us got sandwiches for dinner, I had a bocodillo de tortilla which is a baguette with a sort of egg and potato omelet in it, very filling and good. After a few more glasses of wine we headed back home, luckily we got home just after one because the metro stops running at one thirty.

Overall it was a very eventful day.