Toledo

We met at 8:30 am to head off on a bus tour to Toledo (pronounced Toe LAY doe).  It was about a 1 hour drive. It is a very old town and now a UNESCO protected city so people need approval to make any changes.

Sorry about the blue, I clicked on something on my camera

The bus had to park at the bottom of the hill outside ot Toledo proper and we had to go up and up and up.  Luckily there were escalators.  There were a few brave souls who did stairs where they could.  Once we got to the top to a main plaza we regrouped and met our tour guide, Juan-Jose.

There had been a big festival 2 days ago so there were a lot of flowers everywhere.

Toledo, Ohio is their sister city so they named a street after Toledo, OH.

Post office.  You put your letters in the lions mouths

small 2x2 inch tiles everywhere

an interesting door knocker

They say that it is a town where all the streets go uphill.  I believe it.  First stop was the old synogogue in the Jewish neighborhood.   Now it is a museum, Sinagoga del Transito.  

Then we went to the Santo Tome Chapel to see el Greco's The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. We were not allowed to take pictures.  This painting is on canvas and in its original location.  It was huge.  Very impressive.

We took a short break and Federico gave us some marzipan, though it was entirely different than the marzipan Ihave had before.

The cathedral  - one of the largest in the world

While we were waiting to go into the cathedral we saw a bride dancing in the street

The cathedral was huge

One of the only organs in the world with horizontal pipes

Then we headed back to the square where we started.  Everyone went different directions to find a place to sit down and have lunch. We found a place where we could have pizza and sangria.  Felt good to sit down.  It is 103 degrees in Toledo.

We had a couple of stores to find after lunch so we pretty much did the same circle we had done on our tour.  We bought a few odds and ends.  Back to the square in time to get a lemonade slushy from McDonalds.  It had AC and clean restrooms.  We got on the bus and headed home.