Monday, September 24, 2007

Toledo and Men

Saturday was so great as well. We went to Toledo in the morning. Toledo is about 70 kilometers away from Madrid, and is known for being the cultural crossroads of Spain. Spanish and Arab influence are huge in the architecture and history of the city. We went to the fourth largest Cathedral in Europe, the Cathedral of Toledo (obviously). It was magnificent and somewhat hidden in the downtown close buildings on the top of this hill. Then you walk through a narrow pedestrian street and there is this huge pointy gothic building. We had a crazy tour guide, he as so funny, saying things like "hurry up! roaylty is here, the VIPs are coming through" referring to us in his broken English. And things like "wow and look at this it only took the painter 546 days to finish this one, and over here jesus is crying, you won't see those tears anywhere..." The paintings were very rare and i forget all the artists names, but apparently they are all very important. In the XV-XVII centuries they were all religious painting and the most famous ones were here. The guide would also say things like this is the only cathedral to have the (place any religous term here) and in my opinion it is the best and i have seen all the impotant cathedrals and even been on their roofs. Crazy man.
I saw a young man on the street with a booth who made wax string bracelets, and I stopped to talk to him and told him a lot of people in San Francisco make crafty things like this. So I bought a brilliant bracelet and he said he would have to pass through San Francisco sometime. He was obviously poor with a dog but very nice and I really enjoyed talking to him, I felt like I was in san franscico for a moment. I miss the city but it is so great to be here.
So after being huge tourists and stopping at the one main tourist spot with the huge group and bus and million cameras and being embarrassed as people drove by we left to go back to Madrid for la noche blanca.

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