December 24, 2003

Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 07:53:27 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Holy Toledo!

Hola,

Now i understand where the phrase "Holy Toledo" came from -- it's the cathedral!!!! If Barcelona's cathedral was "ok" and the Notre Dame in Paris is "great", the cathedral in Toledo was FANTASTIC!!! the whole city is great, but the cathedral is really great!

I was a little worried at first not finding the train station (to park my car there), then kept driving toward and found a parking lot right next to the main gate of the old city, just outside the walls. That was convenient... then took the escalators all the way up to the top of the mountain -- this was excellent -- no climbing involved here!

From there i just started roaming around -- i didn't have a good map of the city, and just walked through the literally hundreds of tiny streets and made my way to the Alcazar (? - i forget now what it's called... i think thats what it is) -- its a 15th century building at the top of the mountain, visible for miles around as its the highest building in the city. Not the tallest - the highest. Next to it was a small shop which was actually open on christmas eve, so i went inside and bought a good guidebook of toledo which included a so-so map. The Alcazar (or whatever its called) was closed for renovation... so i made my way to the Cathedral.

Of course got lost everywhere, but finally made it there and went inside. This one was amazing -- and i'll retract my earlier statement "if you've been to one big huge gothic cathedral with tall stained glass windows and detailed stone carvings on the exterior walls, you've been to them all!"

Not true! The one in Toledo is gorgeous! It has all the standard stuff - large stained glass windows, a lot of small chapels inside all around the walls, etc.. but this one was actually beautiful to look at (unlike Barcelona)! Well, i was dazzled, and i'll leave it at that..

Outside the cathedral there's a tourist information office which was also open today - amazing! So i got a good map of the city and made my way around some more tiny little streets before finally making my way back out the city through the main gates. The whole city is amazing... very well preserved medieval city/fort up on a hilltop.

There's also a castle just outside the walls, but that was closed on this day. (christmas eve)

After that was a 5-hour drive down to Sevilla. The drive is quite nice - again a lot of castles visibile on hilltops... as long as you were lucky enough to look in the right place at the right time. Toledo has a lot of castles around it, and the guidebook i bought earlier that morning had "scenic loop drives" to visit all of these... good info for a future trip.

Well, by the time i reached Seville, it was after dark and all the restaurants had clsed for the holiday. The only place i found open was a cafeteria inside the hotel, and I had 1 cold vege sandwhich (kitchen closed, so they didn't have anything hot).

I should have eaten 2, and packed 2 more to go. but i didn't..................................

Toledo: