Once the center of power in Spain, today’s Toledo is a fairly small but picturesque city. We toured the huge, impressive Catedral Toledo with an audio guide and enjoyed it immensely! Here’s a link for the history but you’ll see lots of pictures in our album. Now we know where the term "Holy Toledo" comes from.
We were also amazed at the art in the sacristy! There were works by El Greco, Titian, Carravaggio and Bellini just to name a few. We topped off the evening by going to a tapas bar and enjoyed several local specialties: a venison sandwich with mushrooms and onion, a pork stew and for dessert we had a mazapan cookie with a squash filling and pine nuts.
The following day we followed the walking tour in our book. We started in the Plaza de Zocodover then onto the main commercial street but it seemed to be delivery day in the town.
The crowds trying to follow their guides and groups of school children on outings had to halt forward progress and squeeze along the tiny sidewalks and wait for each to go by. We dodged over to a side street and found no traffic problems. We snapped pictures along the way of the distinctive Mudejar architecture (a hybrid Moorish/Gothic style of the Muslim craftspeople). One of my favorite things was the balconies that overhang the streets. For lunch we had more tapas - pork stew and potatoes and a ratatouille topped with a fried egg. Bread was used to soak up all the delicious juices. After lunch we went into Santo Tome to see the masterpiece by El Greco - incredible. No photos allowed though so here’s a link that shows it:
Wikipedia and the El Greco masterpiece
We got to see a rare synagogue in Spain. Transito Synagogue had a nice museum and beautifully carved walls.
Next Stop: Granada.
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