Toledo!!

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January 26th 2008

Published: January 26th 2008

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Britt347

Toledo

view from the stop

After our little day trip to El Escorial and Valle de los Caidos, we had a 5 hour bus ride to TOLEDO!! I most definitely slept for that whole thing too. When we arrived in Toledo, we were all awestruck. Toledo is absolutely the most gorgeous place I have yet to see in my life! We were let out of the bus at the top of the hill, before going down onto the peninsula of Toledo to take pictures. It was amazing. But then came the hard part. We drove down the hill and to the billion year old bridge that crosses over to Toledo. The bus driver then informed us that the buses couldn't "fit" in the streets of Toledo and thus we had to walk....with our suitcases. Our leader, Christian, said that it would all be ok, because it was just a 3-5 minute walk and we would be fine despite the condition of the hills. So we all unloaded our maletas, got ready with out 100 lbs. of clothes, and started walking across the bridge, headed for the steepest hill i have ever seen.

About 30 minutes later, drenched in sweat despite the cold weather, we were

Toledo

view from the stop

still walking...no no correction, scaling the freaking streets of Toledo!! It was absolutely miserable!! When we finally got to our hotel after a 50 minute stroll up the biggest mountain of my life, the hotel was amazing. We all got situated in our rooms again, and then had an orientation in which Molly, my roommate got yelled at for almost falling asleep lol.

The next day I awoke to find myself in a cloud! It was so cool, there was fog absolutely everywhere which gave the whole sleepy town a mysterious feel. We had tours that day, and because Toledo used to be the capital of Spain and has a billion cathedrals and sites to see this took a while. I loved our guide, Mario, though he was hilarious. My favorite part of the tour was the first mosque that we visited. In its time it had been used by Catholics, Jews, and Muslims...and is thus the most famous mosque in the world. It is situated so that all 3 of the conflicting religions prayed to an alter that was in the same place, to the west. The way Mario told the tale made it an amazing concept...a definite

Toledo

the river that surrounds Toledo

must see.

After our tour, a group of us went to lunch, in which i had a bocadillo, and then did some exploring. Oh ya, I forgot, we also got to see one of the only works that El Greco, a famous artist, did on a blank wall. Greco lived in Toledo, and painted an amazing scene of angels coming down to lift the dead saint to heaven. Not only were the colors amazing, but he also painted himself in as one of the Spanish royalty. Incredible.

Ok so back to the exploring. We walked around, took pictures, looked at the crazy swords, ya know touristy things. That night, we went to dinner(amazing as always) at a little arabian restaurant, and by the way meditteranean food is huge here,and went to a crazy packed club in the bottom of a ritzy hotel. Loved it, it was super packed and quite possibly the hottest(temperature wise) place I have been in my life. Had fun and danced the night away, ya know the drill.

The next morning we left for Valencia, and to meet my family here....

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