Toledo

I tried to do this yesterday, and it didn't work. So I'll try it today. We took an afternoon and went to Toledo. Toledo was the first capital in Spain. It's a very beautiful city and is also known for being a place where the Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived peacefully. We had a tour guide, Fernando, who was, well, interesting. He told a lot of jokes and I couldn't hear him most of the time. I wanted him to tell us more about the buildings and he didn't do that. He would also ask random questions to students and it made a lot of us feel uncomfortable. If he had waited for us to raise our hand, that would have been fine. However, in their culture, they don't do that. They expect you to be able to answer when they call on you.

We only spent the afternoon there and they have us just a half hour to wander on our own. Most of the students went to McDonald's, but I refrained. Aren't you proud of me? I did buy a pastry... (don't worry, I have had McD's out here. Interesting enough, I think it's healthier here. Not as much salt on the fries.)

Here's some pictures of my afternoon in Toledo!



This was a neat gate. They had these all over the city, but this was my best picture. It was as we were walking to the bus.


This was just a cool picture. It was a rainy day, so the sky was actually perfect for taking pictures. These are what typical houses in Spain look like. Further south, the houses are usually white.

The streets were still decorated for Corpus Cristi, which is a huge celebration that takes place 40 days after Easter. Toledo is famous for its Corpus Cristi celebration.


This is me and the skyline of Toledo. You can see the river that surrounds the city. It was very beautiful and the countryside was amazing.

This is the cathedral. It was massive! Inside, they had a crown of Queen Isabel. The cathedrals here are absolutely amazing.

That's a short tour of Toledo. We also went to a synagogue, which is now a convent and the church of Santo Tome, which houses a very famous by Greco, El Conde de Orgaz. Toledo was very beautiful and I wish that we had more time to spend there.