Toledo

An ice cream every day... such a hardship!
Today´s backdrop is Toledo, home of the finest Toledo steel swords... yes we went into every sword shop in Toledo, but with no sensible way to bring one home Riccardo is still swordless.

By now we have joined our Moorish Spain tour so we started in Toledo with an orientation walk, guided by Jose. Remember that all these buildings are at least 500 years old and most are over 1000 years old. The streets are winding narrow alley-ways designed to to confuse, lose and befuddle invaders... and tourists! They are narrow to keep the sunlight out so that the buildings would be cooler inside. It was still hot!!!

After the guided tour Riccardo and I went back to the Cathedral to see what was inside. Now we had already seen one cathedral at Segovia, so I am starting to recognise the layout inside.
I n the middle is the main church, altar, pews, organ, choir seating, high ceiling painted and decorated with lavish quantities of gold.
Around the perimeter are several smaller chapels dedicated to various Saints where rich families, kings etc may be buried.
What made the Toledo Cathedral special was the collection of paintings by famous spanish artists.
There was also a Chapter house with photos and paintings of all the bishops of Toledo going back nearly 2000 years. Although there were a few missing from periods when the Catholic church was not the ruling power in Toledo.

Arriving back in Madrid very late in the day we HAD to go to the Prado as it was our last chance and luckily also free on Sunday afternoons.
We were very, very, very tired by the time we crashed back at our Hotel, and really didn´t do the Prado justice. On the plus side we had already seen most of the great painters at the Toledo Cathedral, and with the major theme of the great masters being their religious paintings it was probably better to see them in context.