Toledo, Spain

15 - 16 March 2017

Although it was just a short stop off the road between Màlaga and Toledo, Cosuegra has to be one of my favorite places that we visited so far.  How cool to be standing next to the windmills that inspired Cervantes while writing Don Quixote.  Well, to be fair, these windmills were built post-Cervantes, but it was windmills like these that he wrote about.

Tilting at windmills

When visiting these windmills, i can tell you for sure, this is a great place for windmills....so windy!

Bearly hanging on in the wind.

Am I tilting at windmills - you be the judge.

So cool

We finally got to Toledo, checked into our apartment and went for an evening stroll.  Look who we came across...Cervantes!

Out for a stroll with Cervantes.

After a few beers and a few tapas we called it a night.

The next morning we started our day visiting Sinagoga del Tránsito that was built in 1361.  Notice that the interior decor looks more like Muslim than Jewish as many of the workers were Moors.  The city of Toledo was actually one of the last strongholds where Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived together peacefully until the Inquisition.

Walking around this old Jewish neighborhood there are many signs of its past history:

The founder of Sinagoga del Tránsito

"Chi" tile in the sidewalk

Menorah tile in the sidewalk

"sefardí tile on the sidewalk

Toledo was the birthplace of El Greco, a great artist of the Spanish Renaissance.  Here we leave the El Greco Museum - photos not generally allowed in art museums, as they want you to pay for images.  This right photo below shows where we paid 8 Euro each to see one large painting by El Greco, displayed in a church, and his most famous masterpiece  "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz".

And then we stumbled across a tasting pub for a local brewery - we absolutely couldn't pass this up.  Compared well with our homeland craft beer.

And now "Mazapan" - an artistic confection made from sugar or honey, and almond meal - a rich and sweet candy - eaten 1 or 2 at a time, and not more.  Tim's holding a 6 Euro sampling (about $6 U.S.) and the "strawberry" at 2 Euro.

A neat Moorish doorway.  We always like the inset doors, usually twinned, at the lower part.

This clothing store, just outside our apartment unit, was built with glass flooring to expose the Roman ruins re-discovered during modern construction.  It's typical that new construction if often layered upon the previous, often very old structure.  This was likely backfilled with rocks, soil, "toss-ins", and excavated by archaeologists prior to new construction.

And now time to visit Toledo Cathedral.  The guidebook explained:   "The cathedral of Toledo is one of the three 13th-century High Gothic cathedrals in Spain and is considered, in the opinion of some authorities, to be the magnum opus of the Gothic style in Spain. It was begun in 1226 under the rule of Ferdinand III and the last Gothic contributions were made in the 15th century when, in 1493, the vaults of the central nave were finished during the time of the Catholic Monarchs (namely Ferdinand and Isabella).

We climbed the tower to the top.  Tim thought it was a bit "frighty" as it was claustrophobic spiral stairs at various points and wide open catwalks at other areas.  At the top, the big bell was very reminiscent of our Liberty Bell, in which it cracked and the crack grew as it was donged.  Even before that, the guidebook explained how they scratched their heads on how to hoist it to the top, until a Navy man signed on with his knowledge and organized a team to make the hoist.  The crack at some time later was smoothed out to prevent the bell from completely disintegrating.

This dome (the bright area) was amazing - with sculpture detail attached at the base and seemingly hovering over the viewer below.

Tim standing at the doorway of our Air BnB apartment.  And the balcony above with the plants was ours (for 2 days).  A very modern dwelling inside of old (18th century?) structure.

The courtyard inside the outside doorway (nearly every residential enclave has similar courtyards).