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| Our first view of Toledo and the roman bridge! |
The next day we were off on our first excursion out of Madrid to - TO'LED'O the medieval capital of Spain until 1560! Toledo is a world heritage site and sits atop a rocky mound and on three sides there is the gorge of Rio Tago. Every inch of available land on this outcrop has been built on: synagogues (Jews were there until the mid 1500s), churches and mosques. The streets are tiny and meandering, very very easy to get lost. We arrives on one side of the city and walked through to the other side, being careful to remain in sight of the guide..who spoke a million miles an hour with a very broad Spanish accent...but we got the jist of the amazing history of the city.
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| The Cathedral - huge and imposing even from a distance! |
The Cathedral is at the core of the city and is a Gothic construction which building commenced in 1227 and finished in 1493. We didn't go in this time. We moved onto the Santo Tome which is where El Greco's masterpiece "the Burial of the Count of Orgaz" is housed. We spent a while looking at this painting and being amazed at the size of it and the detail. Amazing!! (And again feeling soooooo ignorant of the history of this part of the world - there was so much going on!
And the Santa Maria la Blanca was a synagogue but was converted into a Catholic Church at some time after (ask David the details...I just take pictures!!) It was an eclectic building altogether...bits of this and bits of that...a bit confusing really...
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| Me and the city of Toledo...love it, love it! |
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| On the streets of Toledo! |
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| One of the buildings we visited! |
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| The river that loops around the city! |
We have decided that we need to come back here and get lost in the tiny narrow streets for a few days. I hope we do!!
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| The old gate by which you enter the city! |
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