Saturday July 11th: Today I went to Toledo. I was the only one of three in my group that woke up for breakfast this morning or maybe even woke up this morning, I’m not sure. The other two left for Pamplona around 2pm this afternoon. They want to run with the Bulls. Estan locos. I chose the much less expensive, much less dangerous, and more “cultured” approach to things. Toledo is about an hour southwest of Madrid where I am living right now. Take a look at google maps for a rough idea. We met the school group at 9:00am and left shortly after. We arrived in Toledo around 10:15 or so and were given an opportunity to take pictures of the city from a nearby hill. Here is what came of that.
We then were driven to one side of the city and told that we could get back on the bus that would take us home at 4pm on the other side of the city. I was fine with this and it seemed like a good way for me to learn my way around during the day and explore a little bit of the city that is slightly less traveled. Then I was told that we had to stay with the group for the entire day with a tour guide who only spoke Spanish. While I love the opportunity to learn Spanish, I would also like to know about the art that I’m looking at in this church and why it is important. I did the best I could and asked the fluent Spanish speaker a lot of questions. Our first stop in Toledo was the cathedral. This church puts the one that I was in in Barcelona to shame in terms of size. It was huge. I felt the goal of the architect to demonstrate the awesomeness of God in a single building. We weren’t allowed to take pictures which many people around us were doing. I wish I wanted to break that rule but I couldn’t, and I wouldn’t let myself, so I get to describe it for you. If you don’t want to read a long description jump to the **. We were allowed to go into the choir of the church and walk around seeing the organs and where the choir sat, in straight backed wooden chairs. The podium where the conductor would have stood was about eight feet tall (as tall as most normal ceilings) and the front depicted an eagle in mid flight. It was slightly intimidating. From the choir we were shown the “parade object” for lack of a better term. I can now say that I’ve seen the sword that was carried by Franco. (He won the Spanish civil war with some help from Nazi Germany). There was also a table, that I’m not sure what it was made of, but it was cool. There were four angels as the legs holding it up and I mainly noticed the details in their clothing. There was a design on the outside of their robes that was only noticeable from about a foot away (behind glass). We then went into the art room. Paintings by El Greco, Van Dyck and others covered the walls. In a side room were the priests robe seemingly from the last two to four hundred years. From the art room we ventured into what used to be the legislative center of Toledo (still in the church) where the records were kept (we didn’t get to see them). The sculptures and paintings integrated into the architecture of the church itself were amazing an no matter how hard I try I can’t describe it to you, just know that it was amazing. Here are some pictures that I found online of people taking pictures despite the signs and guards and respect for the rules…
Here is the Choir podium
And here is the sweet table
**
From the Cathedral we headed to the synagogue. I have a single picture of the main room here:
And the rest was just museum. We then had a break for lunch which was an hour and a half to eat and do some shopping/exploring, but I didn’t want to get too lost so I stayed relatively close to the meeting place and did some shopping (with eyes only) with Nate. After lunch at around 3:15 we went into another church that wouldn’t let us take pictures but was also cool. In this church “hangs” (it is painted on the wall) a paintinig by El Greco, called The Burial of Count Orgaz. As soon as we were done there we headed to the bus and were allowed a few short minutes of picture taking on the way out of the city of the puenta of san martin (the bridge of Saint Martin). We then headed home where I organized some things checked emails, and face book, had dinner and talked with Sarah before going to bed. So ends July 11th.
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