June 22 - Toledo

We got up early, showered, ate breakfast, and then looked for a taxi. And looked. And looked some more. We had to try three places for over a half hour to get a cab down to the train station Estacion Atoche - there's a large tropical garden with standing water and lillies; its very humid by the garden. The train was one of those high speed AVE trains, so it took one half hour to get to Toledo. We arrived and waited in a queue for a taxi, which let us off right outside the old city.

The train station in Madrid

From a postcard of Toledo - this is a view of the whole city

We stopped into a ceramics shop just after entering - the fellow had a Matzoh plate among other things - guess Judaism did make a big mark on Toledo. The owner said that his name was common among Jews that converted during the Inquisition. We then started touring at the San Juan de los Reyes church, which has lots of carvings inside (no photos) and a beautiful cloister.

The ceiling of the upper level of the cloisters	A sculpture on the lower level of the cloisters
A detail of the ceiling of the cloisters
Detail of a ceiling corner in the cloisters
A sculptural detail from the ceiling of the cloisters
The courtyard of the cloisters
Yes, Aviva took a picture of me taking a picture
The ticket

Our next stop was at Santa Maria la Bianca, which was a synagogue originally. The interior is austere - its obvious that its been plundered, and there's little left of the original synagogue except the columns.

Sign on the wall for the synagogue
The ticket for the Sinagoga

We walked further down Calle de San Juan de Dios to Sinagoga del Transita, which is a magnificent synagogue and Judaic museum.

Sign for the museum and synagogue
One wall of the Sinagoga
The ticket for the Sinagoga

We then walked around enough to get lost, got some help and found the Cathedral (after eating lunch at a tourist trap - not that good). This place was immense and quite decorative.

The main entrance	The nave
The ticket

We then started to walk to the Alcazar, but it was too hot and too much climbing, so we decided to start heading back to the train station. We didn't know where to catch a cab so we went to Tourist Information - the woman told us to take the #6 bus, so we walked across to Plaza de Zocodover (the main drag we walked along, Calle del Comercio, was, obviously, a major shopping street, mostly tourist trash).

A skeleton over a doorway

That's a stuffed hare standing reading - watch out, he has a gun!

We did manage to find the Church of San Tomé, which has a very famous work by El Greco, The Burial of Count Orgaz.

El Greco, "The Burial of Count Orgaz"

So, we picked up the #6 bus and missed the stop across the highway from the train station. So, we rode and rode and rode. Eventually Aviva got up to ask the driver when we'd be back at the station. The bus lurched right, Aviva fell left right onto my legs, pinning my left leg against the armrest. It was excruciating. I've got a big bruise behind my left knee and it hurts to straighten it to bend it completely. But, even so, we managed to make the train and get back to Madrid.

This is what my knee looked like the next morning - yech!

This is the AVE high-speed train we took back to Madrid

We ate dinner at a little pizza place near the hotel (I didn't want to hobble too far) - it was really great!

We limped back to the hotel and retired for the night.