Toledo: The Post of Pictures

Not much happened this week. We've both been busy teaching and such. Fortunately, we're feeling more comfortable with our classes and students!

Last weekend, we were able to venture outside of Madrid and take a day trip to Toledo (no Ohio). We took the glorious Renfe train. It is one of Spain's nice trains that takes you to Toledo in a half an hour. The Renfe also is a commuter train in the city. A and I use this train frequently to commute to our jobs north of town. Here's a picture of the lovely train.



As we departed from Madrid, I took some shots of the scenery. As expected, there were a lot of farms, but very little grass. It surprises me that anything grows out here. If there's one thing I'm missing from the US, it's the trees changing colors and seeing grass!



Toledo is the capital of La Mancha. It's an old city that seems to be built upon a hill. When you're meandering through the downtown streets you can get easily winded from the uphill climb. It is the birthplace of El Greco and Garciliaso de la Vega. The city was prominent during the Spanish Empire and promoted a co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Jews.


Toledo is also famous for their metal work and sword-making. Here's a picture of some armor. The designs on the armor are very intricate.



While we walked through the city, we were able to tour an old synagogue. It was beautiful and it had a lot of Muslim influences in the architecture. The museum had a wealth of information about Judaism as a religion and culture. I would have loved to learn about it, but everything was in Spanish.









One sign that I was able to read was great. Check out this sign at the synagogue. My favorite part is the last thing you are not allowed to do inside.



After the synagogue, we checked out the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes. There was a beautiful courtyard with orange trees and a well. The inside of the church was amazing.









This picture above is from the ceiling. It's pretty neat to see a mixture of symbols and designs that are Jewish and Muslim.



Finally, here's a picture of Puerta del Sol. It looks like a castle doesn't it?



So that is our latest adventure here in Spain. We are now preparing to move into a bigger apartment. After that, we have a weekend trip to Portugal, where I need to take another test and figure out why I can't understand Portuguese.