Toledo (not Ohio)

Off to Toledo on the high speed train. The whole 'high speed' thing was rendered mute when it turned out the train we wanted was full and we had to wait an additional hour. But we wanted to do the high speed so we sat on a granite bench and killed time and butts. - - - - - -  - - -

Later. Back on the train from Toledo. Mixed reviews.


Bitchin' city. History culture and architecture are a mix of Christian and Moorish .... with Jewish influences. (Obviously before that whole lovely Spanish Inquisition thing). Very cool and really loved it. Except for ...... it kind of felt like a 'disneyland' thing. Almost everyone on the streets were tourists. Droves of tourists. Big groups and small. Some groupsspoke English, some French. Some Japanese, Indian, etc.  SO MANY TOURISTS. Couples and families. It seemed to me that every business in town (old historical part) catered to the tourists. So many trinkets and so much junk  for sale. Plus a little too clean .... like Disneyland. Does that make sense?


But wow! The cathedral. Holy mother of god! Unbelievable and indescribable!. Look it up on the Internet because I can't describe it. One of the 'things' used for ceremonies had a core of solid gold .... 35 pounds of it. That is in addition to 400 pounds of gold plated silver. We did take a couple pictures of it. It is the ten foot tall gold thing. The pics aren't so great. Our fault.

Below is a crummy pic of it.  Maybe my cheesy cmaera couldn't handle the glare from the gold.

The GOLD thing!

CLICK HERE

to see more pics of Toledao

One reason we are doing only the south of Spain is that we want to see the Moorish influence. A lot of that in Toledo ...... Even in the Sinagoga . That is the Jewish Synagog (spelling?) that was built by Moorish craftsman.


I think I can go a lifetime without seeing another Goya or El Greco.

Life is sweet,
Clarke