Toledo
I could've posted more pics of Madrid but I've decided to move on. My many readers mostly check in to see that they're riding many more miles than I, and don't really want to see Spain pics.
That said, Toledo is one of the groovier places in Iberia. Perched on a hill surrounded on 3 sides by the Rio Tajo, it has long held a strategic spot given it's placement almost dead center of the peninsula. Although Madrid is now the capitol, Toledo was so for many years prior and is still the spiritual center of a country that is decidedly Catholic in name but not in practice. It retains so much charm b/c the medieval center city is intact. Building codes are very strict and any new construction takes place outside the original town. The only real ways to get in are via a couple of the original main gates, but now they is also a groovy escalator that you can ride. Think of that irony, riding an escalator to get into a 1000 year-old city.
My pic from across the river. In the center the cathedral and to the right the palace of Carlos V, who's the Hapsburg dude that most benefited from New World plunder.
Toledo is/as further made famous by El Greco's "Vista de Toledo", which is one of his most famous works and one quite famous in the Barroco era.
Main torre of the cathedral. Someone stated that the cathedral here is the 3rd or 4th most important in Catholicism after the Vatican and one of the French ones, perhaps at Lourdes.
These are both views from within Toledo during 'Corpus Christi'. I don't really know what the festival is, and don't care for that matter, but for the Spanish it's right up there. During this the tapestries are taken out of the cathedral and help decorate the streets. There's a parade, oops "procession" of the 'SantÃsimo Sacramento', the monstrance, which is a big-ass tower made of gold and silver stolen from the New World and which has the veritable body of Christ mired within it. It was fun to be in Toledo on such a special day, but it made traffic hell and we got to see much less than we would at a normal time. It IS interesting to see other cultures celebrate their civic days which don't entail grills, Budweiser and dead cow. Maybe other things are important as well.
That said, Toledo is one of the groovier places in Iberia. Perched on a hill surrounded on 3 sides by the Rio Tajo, it has long held a strategic spot given it's placement almost dead center of the peninsula. Although Madrid is now the capitol, Toledo was so for many years prior and is still the spiritual center of a country that is decidedly Catholic in name but not in practice. It retains so much charm b/c the medieval center city is intact. Building codes are very strict and any new construction takes place outside the original town. The only real ways to get in are via a couple of the original main gates, but now they is also a groovy escalator that you can ride. Think of that irony, riding an escalator to get into a 1000 year-old city.
My pic from across the river. In the center the cathedral and to the right the palace of Carlos V, who's the Hapsburg dude that most benefited from New World plunder.
Toledo is/as further made famous by El Greco's "Vista de Toledo", which is one of his most famous works and one quite famous in the Barroco era.
Main torre of the cathedral. Someone stated that the cathedral here is the 3rd or 4th most important in Catholicism after the Vatican and one of the French ones, perhaps at Lourdes.
These are both views from within Toledo during 'Corpus Christi'. I don't really know what the festival is, and don't care for that matter, but for the Spanish it's right up there. During this the tapestries are taken out of the cathedral and help decorate the streets. There's a parade, oops "procession" of the 'SantÃsimo Sacramento', the monstrance, which is a big-ass tower made of gold and silver stolen from the New World and which has the veritable body of Christ mired within it. It was fun to be in Toledo on such a special day, but it made traffic hell and we got to see much less than we would at a normal time. It IS interesting to see other cultures celebrate their civic days which don't entail grills, Budweiser and dead cow. Maybe other things are important as well.
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