Hola from Toledo. Ok so I'm a little late with getting this up but things have been a little crazy this week. I do have all the pictures up now though. A group of us went to Toledo last Friday, the 26th. The way it works with the trips is that BG has 1 trip per month planned and they are completely paid for including transportation, hotel, food and any museums fees, etc, things like that. But there are also Alabama students here studying with us and they take a lot of Friday trips and while it is not included in what we have already paid, we can chip in however much it costs and go along with them. It is a nice way to do things because one of the professors at the University goes with us and he is basically a walking encyclopedia of Spain. It seems as though he knows everything about Spain and can explain everything. So anyways, we took the train to Toledo last Friday, it only took about a half an hour to get there from Madrid. Unfortunately the weather was not pleasant, in fact there were actually some snow flurries and it was quite windy and chilly. Although to Spain's defense I must say that it is not very nice outside, it was a beautiful day today, sunny and 50's. So we arrived in Toledo and took several tours through different buildings, some of which, I was able to take pictures of and some I was unable to. The first place we went was the Children's Hospital that had since been converted into a museum. It was beautiful. We did take a tour through the museum, although it was one of those museums tours where it was kind of hard for us because we didn't know the whole history of the place so it was hard to understand what was of the stuff was, but it was still really neat. When it was a children's hospital it was set up into four different rooms, separating the children into boys and girls and the severity of their diseases. From there we saw several other buildings, including taking a stroll through the Jewish neighborhood and walking through synagogue. Some interesting tidbits I took away from the tour are that there are two main reasons for having such narrow streets, the first was for defense, in the early centuries, it was important to have narrow streets because it was better to fight the enemy. The locals know the town well and the enemies would not, therefore the locals could sneak through the narrow streets, while the enemy was lost. Also the enemy had nowhere to go and did not know where to go. The second reason is because during the summer it gets very hot in Spain and the narrow streets allow for more shade and thus help keep the town cooler during the hot summers. Another piece of information that some may know, but the basic Spain history is that the Muslims conquered all of Spain and at one time ruled all of Spain. A lot of the architecture and history of Spain, even words and things still used today originated from this time. Eventually the Spain was re-conquered with Ferdinand and Isabel conquering Granada, which was the last city to be conquered. And interesting tidbit, Ferdinand and Isabel where the King and Queen who gave Cristobel Colon, aka Christopher Columbus, the supplies he needed to discover America, which of course was not the true intent and then we all know the rest. But anyways, we were then giving some free time during which we ate lunch and a couple of friends and I got a cup of cafe, which I must say is absolutely amazing here in Spain, at this cute little cafe and looked through several stores. After our free time we toured the cathedral which was absolutely magnificent. It is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The pictures do it no justice, but it was the best I could do as there was no flash allowed in the church. Also we were unable to take pictures in one of the prettiest parts of the church, where the choir sits. It is so hard to explain the true beauty of some of the places that I have seen, especially this one and words and pictures just don't do it justice. All in all that was our trip to Toledo, we are possibly thinking about returning when the weather is better to try and see some other things, but a few of us are meeting tomorrow to try and plan some trips and the coming months seem busy, so we will see what happens.
|  | 
|
