Espana: Day 4
Espana: Day 4
Today was another busy and beautiful day! We had a delicious breakfast at our hotel, Infanta Isabel in Segovia to start off, end then we dropped our luggage to a courier and walked to our bus. Segovia is full of very narrow and winding streets, so it is impossible for the bus to get that close to our hotel. We got to our bus, and our driver Ivan- began the trip to Toledo. It took about 2 hrs to get from Segovia to Toledo, so a few took advantage to catch up on more sleep.
Toledo is another gorgeous and majestic city that is probably thousands of years old. It is situated high on a hill and was an excellent location for protection in medieval times. We saw walls built by the romans, and walls added a thousand years ago, and walls that were recently redone. As you climb to the center of town through a series of mechanical escalators, (thank goodness!) you come to a plaza and encounter a series of labyrinthine-like streets. It is very easy to get lost in Toledo. We met our guide Blanca and headed for the cathedral of Toledo. The cathedral is fantastic. It took over 300 years to build, and the altar and choir area are truly unique in their beauty and design. I think it is one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe. Toledo was, and still is, the religious center of Spain. We even had a special treat- as we were doing our tour, a choir group started singing. The sound was so beautiful echoing throughout the cathedral that it made Blanca cry. It was a special moment. We also saw the incredible dome built 200 years after the church was finished to highlight the festival of Corpus Christi. Wherever you see hanging red hats in the Toledo Cathedral, is where there is a cardinal buried. Some of the hats have been hanging there for hundreds of years. We then walked between the cathedral and the church of Santo Tome. This is the church where the famous painting of El Greco hangs, “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.” (El Entierro del Conde del Orgaz). According to Blanca, it is considered of the top 3 works of art in the world. That piece, Las Meninas, (which we saw in the Prado) and The Night Watchmen by Rembrandt. Two out of three isn’t too bad.
We were starving and took a break for lunch and some shopping. Toledo is famous for its steel and damascene designs. It is a really interesting and tedious process to make the designs by hand. We got a special demonstration of both sword making and the damascene jewelry. There will be a few small knifes, swords and jewelry pieces coming home! J I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but there won’t be any large swords coming home this time. Maybe another trip!
Next we started back to Madrid with Ivan to catch our high speed AVE train. We got to the station nice and early to have plenty of time to grab a bite, and catch the train without being in a hurry. The train goes about 280-300 km/hour. I’ll have to look up the conversion when I have wifi.
We will be arriving to our hotel in Barcelona quite late, after midnight. But, we are going to be able to sleep in a bit tomorrow- yay! (Am I talking about sleep to much?) haha.
I asked the students if any of them wanted to add anything to the blog, and Jared said to say, “Hi Mom.” We also have this funny way of counting off to make sure we are all on board- each student is assigned a number in Spanish up to 15, and the moms say, “Viva- Espana- Ole!” That way we know that everyone is present. Then depending on how we are feeling we might do a power clap where we say “Uno-dos-tres” and the clap. They seem to want to do this countdown all the time. The more public the space is- like in the middle of the plaza in Toledo- the better. The Spaniards might look at us- but we know we have everyone!!
We have just arrived to Barcelona safely on the AVE train. Buenas noches!
Today was another busy and beautiful day! We had a delicious breakfast at our hotel, Infanta Isabel in Segovia to start off, end then we dropped our luggage to a courier and walked to our bus. Segovia is full of very narrow and winding streets, so it is impossible for the bus to get that close to our hotel. We got to our bus, and our driver Ivan- began the trip to Toledo. It took about 2 hrs to get from Segovia to Toledo, so a few took advantage to catch up on more sleep.
Toledo is another gorgeous and majestic city that is probably thousands of years old. It is situated high on a hill and was an excellent location for protection in medieval times. We saw walls built by the romans, and walls added a thousand years ago, and walls that were recently redone. As you climb to the center of town through a series of mechanical escalators, (thank goodness!) you come to a plaza and encounter a series of labyrinthine-like streets. It is very easy to get lost in Toledo. We met our guide Blanca and headed for the cathedral of Toledo. The cathedral is fantastic. It took over 300 years to build, and the altar and choir area are truly unique in their beauty and design. I think it is one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe. Toledo was, and still is, the religious center of Spain. We even had a special treat- as we were doing our tour, a choir group started singing. The sound was so beautiful echoing throughout the cathedral that it made Blanca cry. It was a special moment. We also saw the incredible dome built 200 years after the church was finished to highlight the festival of Corpus Christi. Wherever you see hanging red hats in the Toledo Cathedral, is where there is a cardinal buried. Some of the hats have been hanging there for hundreds of years. We then walked between the cathedral and the church of Santo Tome. This is the church where the famous painting of El Greco hangs, “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.” (El Entierro del Conde del Orgaz). According to Blanca, it is considered of the top 3 works of art in the world. That piece, Las Meninas, (which we saw in the Prado) and The Night Watchmen by Rembrandt. Two out of three isn’t too bad.
We were starving and took a break for lunch and some shopping. Toledo is famous for its steel and damascene designs. It is a really interesting and tedious process to make the designs by hand. We got a special demonstration of both sword making and the damascene jewelry. There will be a few small knifes, swords and jewelry pieces coming home! J I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but there won’t be any large swords coming home this time. Maybe another trip!
Next we started back to Madrid with Ivan to catch our high speed AVE train. We got to the station nice and early to have plenty of time to grab a bite, and catch the train without being in a hurry. The train goes about 280-300 km/hour. I’ll have to look up the conversion when I have wifi.
We will be arriving to our hotel in Barcelona quite late, after midnight. But, we are going to be able to sleep in a bit tomorrow- yay! (Am I talking about sleep to much?) haha.
I asked the students if any of them wanted to add anything to the blog, and Jared said to say, “Hi Mom.” We also have this funny way of counting off to make sure we are all on board- each student is assigned a number in Spanish up to 15, and the moms say, “Viva- Espana- Ole!” That way we know that everyone is present. Then depending on how we are feeling we might do a power clap where we say “Uno-dos-tres” and the clap. They seem to want to do this countdown all the time. The more public the space is- like in the middle of the plaza in Toledo- the better. The Spaniards might look at us- but we know we have everyone!!
We have just arrived to Barcelona safely on the AVE train. Buenas noches!