Five Hours in Toledo

Yesterday my friend Emmy and I went to Toledo. We hopped on the fast train around mid day and got there in 25 minutes! We need these trains in the US!

I found this photo on the internet.

When I first visited Toledo with Lily in December 2009 it was rainy and cold the whole time, which seemed to fit with the mood of the place. The streets are narrow, keeping the sun from penetrating too much. Therefore the city is kind of dark and with all the Gothic architecture, it sort of feels mysterious and ghostly, in a beautiful way.

Toledo is the capital of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It’s famous for its cultural and monumental heritage as one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire and place of coexistence of Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures.

Toledo’s history in a nutshell is sort of this: humans were living there in the Bronze age, then the Romans ruled and it was a main commercial and administrative center. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Visigoths made it their capital. The Visigoths forbade Jewish rites and culture, forcing many to practice in secrete. Then the Moors took over in the 8th Century. Under Muslim rule, Toledo experienced a period known as La Convivencia, the coexistence of Jews, Moors, and Christians.

The Christians began ruling when Alfonso VI of Castile took over the city. During part of the 16th Century Toledo was the capital of Castile until the Monarchy moved to Madrid.

Here we stopped to say hello to Miguel Cervantes, the author of Don Quxiote.

Plaza Zocodover

Notice the moorish arch way. It leads to the statue of Cervantes and the Mueseo de Santa Cruz.

Patio inside the museo de Santa Cruz. This building was once a hospital. There are lots of El Greco's paintings here and ceramics and fossils that archeologists have found in the area.

This tusk is HUGE. I should have stood in the picture so you could compare it to something. The tusk, antlers, and wild bull horns were all discovered in Castilla La Mancha. 

This is one of El Greco's most famous paintings: Immaculate Conception

Painting of men tanning hides. (Nicole, I thought of you when I took this.)

Tiles, beautiful tiles! Many of the tiles had pictures of animals and houses. I really like the simple blue ones. 

We also checked out the Cathedral of Toledo. Here's a photo from the internet:

A narrow street with the Cathedral in the background.

Before we caught the bus back to the train station we drank cafe con leche in a plaza overlooking the river.

Outside of the El Greco museum was this garden with an abundance of two of my favorite herbs: lavender and rosemary.

The door to the School of Art, where, two years ago, Lily and I met several art professors and they took us out for a night on the town. One of them ended up giving us a ride to Madrid.


Sunset over the rio Tajo

Señorita Emmy

An Afternoon in the Museum

Today we went to the museo in Retiro park. The paintings in the exhibit were CRAZY! They literally sucked us into their worlds. Luckily I had my camera to capture this incredible experience.

LADY MASTER FUTURE

Carlos's mom gave him a robot cooker called Lady Master Future. She is like a crockpot on steroids. She fries, bakes, sautés, grills, etc. You name it. You just throw in the ingredients and wa-laaa!
I prefer to cook myself, but I'm warming up to the idea of Lady Master. Carlos used it for the first time this weekend to make his favorite lentejas con chorizo. He was so proud!

Velez Blanco

A month or so ago Carlos, Sergio, Vega, Jorge, Andrea, and my new friend Emmy, and I went to Velez Blanco, a pueblo where Carlos's mom's family has a vacation summer house. Velez Blanco is in the south eastern part of Spain, in between Granda and Murcia.
The pueblo looked like something out of a fairy tale. It sits on a hill with a stream running down through the middle. A castle sits high above. The buildings are all painted white with the curvy tiled roofs. The streets were narrow and twisty. There weren't many people in the town and those we did see were mostly older. Around the corner from the house was a bakery with a wood fired oven where we bought our morning pastries. We sampled a few bars while we were there to get a taste of the local's night life. Down the valley to the east of the town is ____, which look like something you'd see in Arizona or New Mexico. Just a big block of earth sitting in the middle of a relatively flat landscape. To the West is the Sierra de Maria where we hiked one day. The forests there are mostly pine and some kind of scrubby oak.

The house we stayed in has been in Carlos's family for ... years. It is filled with antiques. The furniture is old and warm-looking. There are two fire places! In the patio in the back there are a few twisty trees growing in the corners of walls. Their branches arche over head making it feel as if you were in a sheltered forest. In the basement are big old wooden barrels where, it is assumed, olive oil was stored.

The street where the house is. Some houses, like this first one to the right look like they've been empty for a long time. This one's roof was falling in. It seems like most houses are only lived in on the weekends or during the summer.

This tiled plaque greets people entering the house. It says: This is the house of the four Motos Guirao brothers. In this house are the roots of it's lovely past. Enter, rest, and enjoy that everything is prepared. And in exchange for the comfort the house presents you, give it some love and treat it with care.

Here is where we spent most of our time in the house. It's a room off of the kitchen with a grand fire place. We roasted chorizo over the fire, played music and games. It was difficult to keep the fire from smoking. By the end of the weekend all our clothes and hair were saturated in wood fire smoke.

We ate like pigs the whole time. Andrea, the Italian, cooked most of our meals. Among his creations were deliciously simple pastas, roasted mushrooms and veggies, and baked foccacia! He awoke us every morning with his nasally voice, luring us out of bed with the smell of fresh coffee and fire smoke. Jorge walked to the bakery most mornings and bought an array of pastries.

Our first day there we hiked up a hill to see some ancient rock paintings. They were fenced off and hard to see, but it was still pretty neat to look at. On the way down we met farmer with his little dog and herd of goats. I asked him if I could take his picture and he said yes!

According to the sign the paintings were of animals, possibly symbolizing hunting. 

A view of the Cathedral as we climbed up to the Castle.

This is part of an old section of wall. (should I just not use the word ¨old¨? I mean, everything is old in Spain) I believe it used to be part of an older wall surrounding the castle. You can see the evidence of Moorish construction in the arch to the left with the little tip at the top.

From the tiny narrow windows near the top, defenders of the castle would put hot oil down the castle to burn invaders! Horrible! 

You can definitely see how it would be difficult to get inside this place if you weren't welcome.

On the trail to the castle were these big plants. They look kinda like century plants and some have the same big stalk that shoots up from the middle. I love the colors.

Back in the house Emmy and Vega were working on little clay nativity scene figures.

Chocolate chip cookies in the works.

La Comida!

El Concinero!

A view of the patio. In the left back corner is a bomb that the Nationalists (Franco's people) dropped on the University of Granada. And I guess there's no chance of it still going off.... Sort of a creepy thing to have around!

The basement under the house has been restored to what it probably looked like  a hundred years ago.

These wooden barrels sat in holes in this stone slab along the wall. Carlos thought they might have held olive oil. Or wine? The room definitely had a smell of oil.

Here are some old baskets and jugs that were used to haul things around.

The door from the basement leading to the patio.

The patio. Carlos and his cousins used to play out here. So did his Mom and her brothers and sister. Can you imagine what it's like in the Spring with the flowers blooming on the vines and the windows and doors open? Oh, I would love to live there for a summer!

One afternoon we went for a hike in the Sierra de Maria.

Andrea lecturing the campers.

Vega in the mists.

Andrea and Jorge

Lots of decrepit farm houses in the countryside.