Toledo

Saturday we took the train with Joey and Vickie to Toledo. The history of Toledo is a mix of cultures. It has been held by the Iberians, Romans, Visigoths, Moors, and Christians. Toledo was also the capital of Spain for hundreds of years. The city was designed for defense and was a valued prize. The city is also a very religious city with Catholics, Jews, and Muslims having a past and a present here. Therefore, Toledo is known as the city with three cultures. Toledo is also part of the route that Don Quijote took. We arrived at the station, got a city guide, and started walking. Once to the edge of town, we saw what looked like an old castle and walked up the hill to take a look. Unfortunately, the road ended at a military building with no access to the castle. Apparently it was not available for viewing or if so, you had to go a long way around the other way. We decided to just head into the city over the bridge. There are only two bridges that allow access to the city. It became immediately clear by the ancient buildings that we were entering a city that has an amazing history. We started taking pictures on the bridge and walked up steep stairs and roads until we came to a building open with an exhibit. We went inside and on the walls were tapestries dating back to the 17th century. They were truly beautiful and a lot of them were a tribute to Alexander the Great. We went outside and found another building with an exhibit which included old headstones, coffins, painted tiles, old painted pottery, and a Roman statue dating back to the 1st - 2nd century A.D. After leaving this exhibit, we decided to find a place to eat and plan the rest of the time we had available before our train trip back to Madrid. While enjoying a much needed rest and food, we decided to make the cathedral our next stop. That was a good choice. The outside is really awesome but when you step inside, it will literally take your breath away. The church was built from 1226 to 1493. The floor area of the cathedral itself is 21,325 square feet. If you add all the ancillary buildings and cloisters, the area covered by the cathedral is 32,808 square feet. And it is all filled with the most beautiful artwork with scenes from all parts of the bible I have ever seen. Robyn has been to the Notre Dame cathedral and said this one is more magnificent than that one. It would be hard to imagine anything more spectacular than what we were looking at in awe. Again, the pictures will not come close to doing it justice but it's all I can give you. And I was lucky to get the pictures I got. As with most museums and religious buildings, you can either take pictures with no flash or no pictures at all. I thought this was a no flash place but found out I was wrong halfway through it. I took a photo and was yelled at by a man "NO PHOTOS". He soon made an announcement over the PA system because I was not the only one taking pictures. Usually they have signs that tell you but there was no indication here either way. I got some good pictures but some did not come out well and there were a lot more I would have liked to take but that is the way it goes. I'm not sure how long we were in the cathedral but I could have stayed all day. They still say mass 6 times a day every day and if I lived here, I would go every day I could. We made our way out and moved on to our next stop which was a synagogue. It was very interesting and filled with artifacts from their past which was not always pleasant as they were not always treated well by the christians. We were running short on time so we decided to head to a large monastery down the street that looked intriguing. We got there only to find that there was a service going on inside as well as a wedding coming up after that. We sat down outside and rested and tried to decide if we had time to see anything else but we concluded that we still had a rather long walk back to the train station so we headed that way. It had been a fun day but there was still a lot we had not seen so we would have to make a return trip in the future. Next time we will take the hop on, hop off buses to save time and see more. We made it back to the apartment exhausted but thrilled by what we had seen. Unfortunately, Robyn had picked up my cold/sinus infection and was starting to cough as I had been doing most of the day.

Sunday we rested most of the day since we were both now sick. We did go out for a nice dinner and then Robyn did a little shopping while I went to the grocery store before heading home to relax. We skyped with Robyn's family and my cousin Marion's family before heading to bed. It's really nice to be able to see our loved ones while we are talking to them. Technology is a wonderful thing.

Monday and Tuesday were uneventful. Robyn's cough has gotten worse and mine is better. I went to the grocery store today to get enough food to make it through Wednesday because there is a planned strike in Spain that day. Robyn will have to work from home which is good because she will get to rest some. We hope to be well by the end of the week wen our friends Tracie and Randy come. I found out this morning that my sister Kathleen had a guy drive his car into the side of their house. Apparently he had a stolen car and was trying to avoid police when he got on her road. He didn't know there was a sharp curve and went into the neighbors yard, totaled her car and went airborn before hitting Kathleen's house. She told me that it is a total wreck and would have probably killed her husband, Johnny, if he had not worked late because the car came in right where he sits at his computer. Thankfully, no one was injured and the perpetrator was caught after running away thanks to a smart neighbor. Looks like they will have to move out for possibly 6 months while repairs are done. You people be safe back home. We don't need anything happening to anyone.

Adios!

Flemenco, Ritiro Park

I want to thank Robyn for taking on the weekend blog update. She did a great job. Not much happened the first part of the week. Robyn and the BBVA gang are working long, hard hours. I did some walking around our area to roads I had not yet explored. Robyn and I had found a cookie shop last weekend but we did not buy anything so I stopped there and got an assortment of cookies for Robyn to enjoy at work. I put one in her backpack every day as a little surprise. They are really good. Wednesday we planned to see a flemenco show which is half price on Tuesday & Wednesday. There were 9 of us going and we decided to have a party at our house before going since the show is only 5 minutes from our apartment. We made tapas and had libations for all. We filled our bellies and then headed to the show. I didn't really know what to expect even though I had seen a flamenco show in Tampa. The performers did a mix of ballet dance as well as flamenco and they were amazing. The show lasted over an hour and the dancing and music that accompanied the dance were remarkable. At 15 euros we got a real bargain for the show they put on. We may go again when our friends Tracie & Randy come in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera because they frown on the flash of a camera while dancing. If we go back, I will just turn the flash off and see if I can get some pictures. The next day I planned to meet Vickie to get 2 mobile phones that we could use in Spain. Joey and Vickie found cheap phones near their apartment so I met Vickie at their stop and got the phones without any problem. I planned next to go the Atocha railway station to get tickets for our adventure to Toledo on Saturday. Vickie decided to join me so we took the metro to the station and after getting the tickets, we decided to take a walk through Retiro Park which is right behind the Prado museum. This park was built in the 17th century during the reign of Philip IV and is the most important (historically and artistically speaking) of all the parks in Madrid and is one of the most beautiful city parks in the world. The park was originally home to a set of buildings that comprised of a large palace, a garden, hermitages, grottos. ponds, etc. The park is 350 acres large and we only saw a fraction of it this day but what we saw lived up to the reputation. The park is beautiful as the pictures will show. We walked around for a while and then stumbled across a building that hosts exhibits during the year. We went inside and found one of the most unusual exhibits I have ever seen. There was a tribute to the wheat festival that happened in Kansas back in the 70's, a replica of a persons hip, a wall of mouths with tongues sticking out, toy soldiers used in different ways, a table with molded foods representing important dinners throughout history, and more odd things some of which were inappropriate for our blog. We saw the whole exhibit and then went in search of food. it was about 3:00 and we had walked a lot. We ended up walking all the back to Puerta del Sol and ate at a restaurant just down the street from our apartment. The food was really good and so was the sangria. We said our goodbyes and headed home exhausted but satisfied with our day. Vickie is a great sightseeing companion so we plan to do it again in the near future. Joey and Vickie are going to join us on our trip to Toledo so it should be a fun day. Robyn and I plan to go to Retiro park on Sunday and explore some more. There is so much more to see and Vickie and I just scratched the surface. Unfortunately, I have come down with a cold and Robyn's allergies aare acting up. I went to a pharmacy down the street and got some medicine. Hopefully we will get better soon. The picture at the top of the blog is a picture of one of the two gateways to Madrid.

Adios!!