Tales of my time as an English language assistant in France!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Toledo

I believe we arrived in Toledo at about 5am, or something ridiculous, after driving all night. Thankfully, as we had quite a while until brekky, they stopped the bus and we got a couple of hours sleep.

Next: trek up the hill into Toledo itself (bus wouldn't have coped well with those narrow streets) for a hot drink, croissant, and churros. Here's where we ate, in the Plaza Zocodover.


And here is a narrow street that we passed through on our guided tour, of which I heard more or less nothing, as I was at the back of the group.


There seemed to be many of these protruding balconies in Toledo, but I especially like this picture because of the ceramic tiles on the bottom of the balcony. Ceramic tiles were another thing we saw a lot of in Toledo!


From what I can gather from major zooming on the sign, this place is a called the Monastery Restaurant - another thing we passed on our tour. Anyway, I thought it was cool-looking, so I snapped it.


After our picnic lunch, we checked out the town cathedral. I didn't realise I was such a good photographer... way to cut off the tower.


It was huge, and impressive, but a little bit too big for me, really. One of those cathedrals that really feels like a tourist attraction, as opposed to a place of worship.
Also, thanks to my handy-dandy brochure, here are a few facts:
- Construction started in 1227, but on the site of the 'Visigoth cethedral of the 6th century, which was used as a Mosque.
- It's 120m long and 60m wide!

Was particularly impressed by the Sacristie, as the whole ceiling was painted (work of Luca Giordano). Awesome. I'm sure I read all the signs but I honestly can't even remember what the room was for.

Also, outside the cathedral, there was an amazing cellist busking in the street. At one point he launched into a Bach Cello Suite which is reputed to be extremely difficult.

After this, everyone was pretty ready to get back into the bus! Luckily for us, our drivers accepted to take us for a wee tiki tour down past the river and to a lookout point, where we could take photos of this amazing view.


And, without further ado, we were on our way to Granada.

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