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| Cervantes monument |
The Cervantes monument shows bronze statues of Don Quixote and his side kick in the front, being overlooked by a statue of Cervantes himself.
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| Crucifixion of Christ |
We drove through some of the same streets as last night, leading us to the Prado Museum, which was our main focus. Our main focus for our tour were paintings by Goya, Rafael, Velazquez and El Greco. I was fascinated by the pure talent these artists had. Velazquez's "Crucifixion of Christ" is the most realistic I've ever seen - and I got really emotional and had to look away. It was my favourite out of all we saw there today. The famous Goya was definetly not one of my favourites when compared to the other masters.
There's something about Velazquez's painting that a copy of it on a piece of paper - like a postcard - just doesn't do it justice. You have to see the original with your own eyes. I'd seen it in pictures before and thought it was nice - until I saw the original today.
Then it was bus time again and back to the hotel. We had 1 hour for lunch before some of us went up to the town of Toledo. Some of us grabbed a quick sandwich from a place near the hotel called "VIPS" and ate it in our rooms.
Toledo is about an hour away from Madrid. Our valiant driver made an illegal stop on the rather small, winding road leading into the old town, so we got an opportunity to take photos of the whole town. The big palace in the photos is called "Alcazar".
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| Alcazar |
Toledo is also the capital of Castile-La Mancha - where the novel "Don Quixote" is set. By the way, besides the Bible, Cervantes' book is the most translated in the world.
Once we got to the car park to enter the town, we had to go up about 5 escalators to reach the top. Thank God for the escalators because there was no way we'd be able to walk up all the stairs.
We found outselves at a Damascene steel workshop where they make, among various other things, swords, knives and beautiful jewellery. I bought a little hand-made pendant for myself as I couldn't quite take one of their beautiful swords home with me could I?
Of course, Toledo is another hilly town. When we went up a hill, we were rewarded by a down hill, only to be met with another up hill. These hills have been the steepest ones we've encountered so far on this trip.
Our first stop was the Iglesia de Santo Tome (Church of Saint Thomas) - no photography allowed. This is a 12th century church but completly rebuilt in the 14th century.
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| The Burial of Count Orgaz by El Greco |
It is an incredibly small church. This church shows a great painting by El Greco called "The Burial of Count Orgaz" and hangs over Don Gonzalo Ruiz's tomb at the enterance of the church. Don Gonzalo Ruiz
We then stopped off at the Toledo Cathedral and, again, no photographs. As all cathedrals, it's quite impressive. There are so many beautiful things inside it, including a ceiling painting by Luca Giordano. There is also a special small room where all the "Tesoros" or Treasures are kept under glass. Gold everywhere you look in this room.
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| The Toledo monstrance |
The centre point of this room is a gold and silver monstrance (a receptacle in which the host is held). The original smal monstrance is held inside the much larger, more impressive one and is used in the Corpus Christi of Toledo celebrations every year in June. When we were there, they were already preparing the banners for this special occasion.
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| Prisoners' chains on church wall |
On the back of the cathedral, on the outside, you will see varioius chains hanging from the building. Prisoners that were freed in Grenada came to the church to thank Christ for their salvation and placed their chains on the wall of the church. There were more but some were stolen.
Then, off to a small church called Santa Maria La Blanca - Saint Mary The White in the Jewish quarter of Toledo. This church started it's life as a Synagogue and was built by Islamic architects for Jewish use.
With all this religion, now you know where the expression "Holy Toledo!" comes from. Not as some Americans thought from Toledo, Ohio.
Walking back to the bus we passed a very special section that you could smell from up the road - that sweet smell of marzapan. There is even a shopn and cafe run by the nuns where the nun themselves make marzapan sweets. A few people bought some and I helped translate for them.
It was then time to cross Saint Martin Bridge and on the bus back to the hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, we had a one-and-a half hour rest before Jo, Paul, Peter, Kathry and I went off in search of dinner. We walked over to a small plaza about 3 minutes walk from our hotel and ate at a restaurant called "La Cueva" - The Cave. I was on duty tanslating the menu and asking the waiters about the different dishes.
It was a great place with great food but only if you like pork and ham - they have over 200 hams hanging from the ceiling. Not quite as many as the "Museo del Jamon" (Ham Museum) that they have here in Madrid. It has ham hanging everywhere and it's like a ham restaurant.
Anyway, everyone was very happy with their dishes and we had a great night out.
Tomorrow, still in Spain and off on the road to Bilbao.Of course, no photography is allowed in the museum.was a native of Toledo and Señor of the town of Orgaz (the title of Count came to his family later). He was the main benefactor of the the church and made various generous donations to charity.
