TOLEDO

Went to Toledo today on the daytrip with the Cursos Internacionales. I liked the way it was handled way more than the other two trips. We had two tour guides both of whom talked loud enough for everyone to hear, no one got lost and I made it home in time for cena. While I can't say I liked it as much as Lisbon, Toledo was great. It was really pretty. The city of Tres culturas, has of course a Cathedral, and a preserved Synagog and Mosque. The mosque was really not worth looking for, wans't on the itenerary, we found it, it was pretty small and unimpressive. Especially after looking at La Alambra last weekend. But the Synagog was pretty cool, it actually looked a lot more like a mosque than a synagog, it was built by arabic archatects and it showed. Now its more of an art gallery, there were some neat paintings tho. We went to the Monistary of San Juan de los Reyes, which was pretty eat, only place where we could take pictures on the inside. It was pretty neat looking, worth going. It was built as kinda a PR campaign for Fernando and Isabel Nailed to the outside are all these chains, they're from Christian slaves freed in the conquest of Granada.

We went inside the Iglesia de Santo Tome, which is a small church/ tomb, its neat to look at. But the main event of it is the Giant "El entierro del Senor de Orgaz, by El Greco. Its truley a wonder to behold in person. I've heard of people seeing famous works of art and finding them dissapointingly small. It is not the case with this one, it was HUGE, i'm pretty sure it's bigger than my dorm room last year. You could really see the detail that went into it. I was pretty pumped about it.

We went to the cathedral, which is of course huge, and I would have enjoyed it by itself, but it is worth going even for those with cathedral fatigue simpley for the art collection. Several El Grecos, Van Dychs and a few Goyas. Along with lots of really shiney gold jewrley royal and or Catholic stuff.

The city itself is really pretty just to walk around it. Tho it was super hot, and none of the locals were out. All the more reason to eat two ice creams! It was really beautiful, up in the mountains by the entrance to the city you could see the whole thing, it was just magnificant.