Trip Report
Chapter 5
The Tour
Ronda, Costa del Sol, Malaga,
Gibraltar, Alhambra, Granada, Toledo
Ronda & Costa del Sol: Monday October 17
This was to be another “on the road again” day as we traveled from Seville to Costa del Sol with an extended stop in Ronda. We got a fairly early start after a breakfast at the Seville hotel and were treated to a nice sunrise shortly after getting under way.
A nice sunrise, even if we did have to get up early to see it.
We rode for about three hours, with a rest stop along the way and, about 10:30, pulled into a bus terminal (for tourist buses) in the town of Ronda. This is a mountain-top town which I’m sure was initially settled as a very easily defended location when the residents had to worry about invaders and raiders. For the past 100 years or so, the town has taken advantage of the beautiful views to become a popular tourist stop.
We walked down the street, away from the bus terminal, and it was very quiet, at least for the first 10 minutes. Then we got to the main street and turned onto it and we quickly realized that this was very much a tourist oriented town, although we should have realized it when we saw the multiple buses in the terminal.
Walking down a very busy “main street”
The street was fairly long, with plenty of shopping, restaurants, and souvenir stores. We passed a couple of “Ham stores” and realized that they are very serious about their ham around here.
Not sure how this would work for a souvenir
In one square (Plaza Socorro) just a little off of the main street, there was a small archway and underneath the arch was a statue of Hercules, his two lions, and the pillars of Hercules just behind him. Of course everyone tried to get photos in front of Hercules.
We got our photo.
We walked further down the street and it turned out that we were walking toward the cliffs, where the best views were available. There was a small garden area and a plaque at its entrance commemorating a visit by Ernest Hemmingway, who stayed in Ronda for several months in 1959. Interestingly, just inside the garden was a plot of ground being replanted and there were four cats relaxing on the soil. I had to wonder if these cats might have six claws on each foot, like the famous cats at the Hemmingway House in Key West, Florida.
I did not attempt to count the claws on their paws.
We soon reached the first of several scenic overlooks, and much of the reason that Ronda is so popular today. The views were definitely impressive, with the vertical cliffs dropping several thousand feet.
Looking at one overlook from another: note the little extension people could walk onto.
One of the main sights in Ronda is the “New Bridge”. The name might be confusing since it was completed in 1793 after 40 years of construction and the loss of 50 worker’s lives. It is called the “New Bridge” because it replaced the previous or “Old Bridge”. The bridge (by any name) crosses the Tajo gorge and connects the two parts of Ronda: New Town (or “Little Market”) and Old Town (La Ciudad). Of course, we had to cross the bridge and wander around the Old Town some. Whereas the New town has lots of shops and markets, the Old Town has some residences and several schools, so is much less commercial.
The 229 year old “New Bridge” of Ronda
We walked around the old town and enjoyed the views from there, then crossed back over the bridge to the New Town part of Ronda. There were some very nice views to be had from the bridge also.
The views from the bridge, looking the other direction, were also impressive.
We had a few minutes of “free time” (to do whatever shopping was desired) and then we met back together for a short tour of the bull ring. The bull ring was built in the 18th century and has a significant place in Spain bull fighting history as the home of the Rondeno style of bull fighting. Close to the main entrance to the bull ring was a statue of a bull, but with no matador nearby.
The bull seems a little out of place in the middle of so many flowers.
We got a little tour of the bull ring and the first part of that was the bullfighting museum, which is housed under some of the bleachers of the ring. They had lots of photos, sample matador clothing, old bull fight posters, and even some of the bulls who fought (and lost) in the ring.
Maybe they could put the bull heads on the matador mannequins.
After touring the museum, we were able to walk out into the ring (no bulls participated this day). The actual ring felt larger than I expected it to, at least from inside the ring.
Not sure I’d want to share this ring with a bull.
For a little better feel for the size and feeling of the bull ring, you might want to take a look at this video. Andrea did emphasize several times that there are very few actual bull fights in Spain now. A couple of the historic rings (like Seville and this one in Ronda) do stage 2 or 3 fights annually, but there are fewer and fewer each year.
After touring the ring, we were taken to a local restaurant just across the street from the ring where our group had a nice (and filling) lunch, After eating, we walked back to the bus terminal and reboarded our bus, but only for a short ride.
One side result of the bull fighting traditions is a love of fine horses and ranches that raise and train them for riding and shows. Equestrian shows are popular and feature several competitions. One of the major shows is held in the Ronda Bull ring and there are several horse ranches in the area. Just outside of town, our bus pulled off the main road into a very well-kept horse ranch.
The entrance to the horse ranch: I never got the name of the ranch.
We had a nice tour of the facilities where the horses were raised and trained. This was not a small scale business or hobby kind of endeavor: these people were serious and the horses were beautiful. I am far from an expert on horses, but even I can appreciate the beautiful and well cared for horses at this ranch. Our ranch guide said that several of their horses had just won first place medals at a major show. Of course, like about any ranch or farm, there were other animals wandering around, like a bunch of ducks, a rather large turkey, and several cats.
These were the mares.
There was one large corral for the mares, but several smaller fenced areas for the stallions so they could be kept separate: they like to fight too much. After a nice tour and a visit to their gift shop, we headed back to the bus and rode the rest of the way to Costa del Sol.
We arrived and got checked into our hotel that was on the beach, looking out over the Mediterranean sea.
Our view of the Costa del Sol from the hotel patio.
Susan and I took a nice walk up the beach on the very nice sidewalk and past plenty of restaurants, sidewalk vendors, and shops. We had a light dinner on our room’s balcony of cheeses, sausage, and some wine and called it a day.
Malaga: Tuesday, October 18
Today the choices were to take it easy and stay in Costa del Sol, or take the optional morning trip to the city of Malaga and visit the Picasso museum, among other sights. Of course, we took the trip to check out Picasso. It was about a 45 minute ride to Malaga where we left the bus and started a bit of a walking tour.
Roman ruins: a theater in Malaga.
Our first stop, just a short distance from the waterfront, was to view some Roman ruins. This was the remains of a moderate sized Roman theater that was probably built in the early days of the Roman empire, judging by the architecture and type of construction. The amazing thing to me is that it was not (re)discovered until 1951 during some construction, work so it laid idle and covered over for almost 2000 years, yet was in surprisingly good condition.
In walking around Malaga there were numerous murals and “artistic graffiti” around the city. While some of it was officially approved and sponsored, I’m sure a lot of it was completely unauthorized.
I’m sure this mural was properly authorized,
We walked sround the town a bit and soon ended up at the Picasso museum. Picasso was born in Malaga but there was apparently some bad feelings between Picasso, his family, and the city fathers. He spent most of his Spanish days in Barcelona, so that city tended to claim him more openly than Malaga and also has a Picasso museum, but this Malaga museum was opened in 2003 with the support of much of Picasso’s family. It is a very open and “non-stuffy” artist museum where guests are allowed, even encouraged, to take photographs.
The first few paintings we viewed were from his early days as a relatively unknown painter and they show a definite artistic talent. I have heard claims that Picasso was not able to paint “classical” art and so developed his “unique style”, but obviously this was not the case. He was quite capable of painting in the traditional styles, but that just did not interest him.
Some of Picasso’s early paintings
In the galleries, you could see the transformation of Picasso’s work to his signature style of malformed people and objects. As our guide explained, all the parts of a person (or other object) will be accounted for in a painting, but they probably will not be arranged in the expected order or form. I was not, and am still not, a fan of Picasso’s work, but at least I think I can better understand what he was saying and trying to accomplish.
One of his later works
It was also interesting to see how his “love life” affected his paintings, both the subject and style of expression. Picasso was officially married twice, but he had numerous “girl friends” and mistresses and some of them are the subject of multiple paintings.
One of the galleries of his later works
The museum was laid out so that you could follow his works through his lifetime, but that was not necessary: you could jump around or just look at any period of his life and paintings.
Picasso, in a very “interesting” portrait
When we left the museum there was a huge line of people waiting to enter. Out tour guide had gotten us to the museum before the large crowd arrived and, for that, we were thankful.
We continued our walking city tour, making almost a full circle around the Malaga Cathedral, said to be the second tallest cathedral in Spain. We did not go inside, which was fine for me as, by this time, I seen about enough ornate churches.
The Malaga Cathedral
By this time, it was getting close to lunchtime, so we were turned loose to look around and then find lunch on our own. We had some difficulty finding an appropriate restaurant because it seemed that all the restaurants that were open were full of people with no empty seats, although a lot of restaurants were not open yet. We finally spotted a café with a couple of empty tables and grabbed one. We just wanted something light, so we asked the server if we could just get a plate of cheeses, sausage, and bread and a couple of glasses of wine, although we did not see anything like that on the menu and she said “Sure!”. We ended up with a very nice plate of cheese, meat, and bread and some white wine. Good choice!
Delightful restaurant: our seats were the now empty ones nearest the camera.
We had another 30 minutes or so to look around after lunch before meeting up with the rest of our group again and heading back to our hotel in Costa del Sol.
A monument in the plaza at the center of town
It was still fairly
early when we got back to the hotel, so Susan and I took another walk along the
sidewalk of Costa del Sol, and then wandered around a wharf and marina close
by. 
GoogleEarth view of Costa Del Sol: marina, beach, Hotel Sol in middle
After getting our exercise, we relaxed by the pool for a while, although there was not a lot of the “sol” on the Costa del Sol that day. In the evening we had a group dinner in the hotel restaurant: not exactly a memorable meal, but good to be together as a group.
Gibraltar: Wednesday, October 19
Gibraltar: yes, “The Rock”, that big hunk of solid rock that guards the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. Well, maybe not so solid (as we’ll see later) but still a big rock. It was about an hour ride from our hotel and is actually a part of the United Kingdom, which is no longer a part of the European Union. We were reminded, several times by Andrea, that we would need to have our passports to enter Gibraltar or we would be spending a rather boring day just outside the Gibraltar gates. Unfortunately, the day turned out to be rather cloudy with occasional light rain so the views were not exactly what the travel companies might advertise.
Our first real view of Gibraltar
Several thousand local workers cross the border into Gibraltar every day, so we left our bus behind, joined the queues of people, and were admitted onto UK soil. Here we climbed into a couple of small buses which would be able to negotiate the narrow roads and small tunnels. One of our first “sights” on the small buses was the middle of the Gibraltar airport’s runway.
Looking down the middle of the only runway in Gibraltar
Space is limited and valuable on the peninsula that supports Gibraltar and there is only one place to put a runway. Although the runway runs from one edge of the land area to the other edge, it still is just barely long enough to allow commercial aircraft. There was no room to allow a road to go around the runway, so the road has to go across the runway at about the midway point. The road is closed whenever an airplane is to take off or land.
We rode around the main part of the rock, heading for the southernmost point and passed a waterfall along the way.
Looks like a nice waterfall
It is actually a manmade waterfall that comes out of the side of the mountain. The water is actually excess water from the desalination plant that is well back into the mountain. We rode to a parking area close to the lighthouse at the southern point and got out to look around a little. The Gibraltar University is located in this area and there is a sports complex and stadium, but we were here to look across the strait and see Morocco. Sadly, that was not to be today: just too many low clouds and fog. Visibility was probably less than half of the 8 miles across the strait to Morocco. We could see quite a few ships loitering in the area, but that was all.
Morocco is out there somewhere, 8 miles away.
After straining our eyes to see Morocco, we climbed back into our buses and headed on a winding road with numerous interesting sights.
The harbor of Gibraltar: lots of ships at anchor
We had good views of Gibraltar harbor and were a bit surprised to see so many cargo ships apparently just sitting at anchor. A lot of supplies and goods come into the harbor for the southern part of Spain as well as Gibraltar, but it seemed that many of them were just sitting, waiting for something.
Our next stop would be at the “Cave of Saint Michael”, so named because one of the early explorers of the cave said that some of the rock formations looked like the archangel of Saint Michael. Remember my comment about the “solid rock” of Gibraltar? Don’t believe it! Gibraltar is full of holes, both manmade and natural. There are about 34 miles of manmade tunnels, dug over the past 200 years, that crisscross the interior of the rock and function as part of the defensive function of the facility. But there are also over 150 identified natural limestone caves, of which St Michael’s cave is the largest.
The rock formations are natural: the colored lights are artificial.
The bare rock formations are impressive, but to emphasize the shapes and help the visitor to visualize the archangel, colored lights are used to illuminate much of the cave. Some of the lights cycle on and off and occasionally there is a “light show” when the lights are cycled in patterns to music. There is an area of stadium-like seating up one side of the cave and various events are held in this unusual setting.
Colored lighting to emphasize the archangel shape
With the help of the colored lights, I could visualize the archangel shape, but it would take quite a bit of imagination to see it without the lights. Although the existence of the cave has been well known since the days of the Greek and Roman civilizations, some artifacts have been found which have been dated back to over 15,000 years ago.
As we exited the cave, we encountered another of the main attractions of Gibraltar: the Barbary macaque monkeys. I think some of the members of our tour group considered the monkeys to be the main thing they wanted to see here. These monkeys are of a type that are from Morocco and most people believe that their ancestors were brought over from there during the Moorish days in Spain.
Before encountering the monkeys, we were told several times: “DO NOT FEED THE MONKEYS.” Human food, especially the kind usually eaten by tourists, is not good for monkeys and encourages them to pester people, looking for handouts. Of course, too many people feed them anyway, as you can tell by the monkey below, which is eating a foil wrapped ice cream bar.
The foil wrapping presented little challenge to the monkey.
There are currently about 300 monkeys in Gibraltar, organized into five troops and they are very healthy. Despite some surreptitious birth control means imposed on the monkeys, their numbers are growing and they occasionally wander outside the wooded areas into the commercial and human-polulated areas. When one troop did this and became a problem in 2014, all members of the troop were captured and sent to a safari park in Scotland which had been requesting some of the monkeys. Follow-up reports say that the displaced monkeys are doing well and reproducing normally.
The thing I noticed about the monkeys was how human-like many of their actions and expressions were. The young monkeys played with each other, sometimes in the middle of the streets: some of them seemed to get a special joy out of playing on top of the busses, and sometimes they just seemed to be imitating humans, such in the photo below.
Such a human-like position and expression
We left the monkeys behind and headed back into the commercial and very developed part of Gibraltar. I was surprised at how developed and modern most of the area was with many relatively new apartment buildings, schools, stores, and medical facilities. The several marinas seemed to be full of boats of all kinds.
Part of the developed commercial area. (Can you spot the cable car?)
We had some “free time” to shop and get a bit to eat before getting back together, going through the customs/immigration process in the other direction, and reboarding our bus for the ride back to Costa del Sol.
Our last clear view of the rock: Not as many clouds as in the morning.
When we got back to the hotel, Susan and I took another walk on the beach sidewalk. Susan even stuck her foot in the water and proclaimed it “not frigid, but too cold for us to swim”.
There are several restaurants along the beach walk.
After the walk we decided to see if we could find some paella for dinner that evening. I had noticed one of the beach walk restaurants had a sign out front for paella for two plus a bottle of wine for 38 Euros (about $40), so we decided to go there and give it a try. When we ordered, I asked if we could have a bottle of Rioja wine instead of whatever their normal red house wine was. The server seemed a little surprised; I guess not many tourists know enough to ask for a specific kind of wine, but he was glad to accommodate us. I assumed we would get charged something extra for the better wine.
Paella takes a while to prepare properly: I think Susan was getting worried.
The wine he served us was very good (in the US, it would cost about $20 retail, or at a typical restaurant, about $60 for a bottle). The paella was very good, probably the best we had on our trip, the wine was good, and the setting on the beach was beautiful: what more do you want? When we got the check, there was no extra charge for the Rioja wine. I’m not sure if they just forgot to charge for it, or perhaps they were so glad to have someone who appreciated better wine, that they decided to not charge for it. In any case, the server got a nice tip.
Alhambra and Granada: Thursday, October 20
Up early the next morning for a couple of hours of riding to the Alhambra complex in Grenada. On the way we passed through a very agricultural area with lots of farms and groves. It seemed that, in the more southern area, there were a lot of orange groves then, as we got a bit further north where it was drier the groves turned into olive orchards. There were a LOT of olive trees. Olive trees have a sort of bluish grey color to the leaves and they tend to be pretty easy to identify, even from a distance. As we had noticed previously, it appeared that in the younger, more recently planted groves the young trees (both oranges and olives) were planted much closer together than the older, more established trees. I assumed that the land is getting more precious.
An orange grove, a little north of the Costa del Sol
We had an “appointment” for our tour of the Alhambra, so we had to keep to a pretty definite schedule. We arrived in the city of Grenada about 10:00 and first rode to a street with a viewing area that looked out over the Alhambra. We had several minutes here to take photos and get an idea of the size of the complex.
Part of the Alhambra complex is visible here.
We looked around at the city and the Alhambra, took photos (like the one above) and some videos. This video of part of the city of Grenada and the Alhambra may give you a better feel for the area and the extent of the complex buildings.
After getting a good look, we loaded up the bus again and headed to the entrance area for Alhambra. It seemed that getting into the complex was a bit complicated, between the tightly controlled reservation slots, required local guides, and the relatively high prices (about $35 for entry and guide tour). Of course, our tickets were paid for (included in our tour) and we had a guide that does the Gate-1 tours, but the entry process just seemed confused.
There are several routes to enter the complex and there is a recommended path to follow to see as much as possible, although our guide took us off that path a little bit several times. As we entered the main part of Alhambra, the “Iglesias de Santa Maria de la Alhambra” (St Mary Church of the Alhambra) was the first main structure in front of us.
The Iglesias de Santa Maria de la Alhambra
The church was built (finished in 1618) on the site of the Moorish Great Mosque, supposably to demonstrate the superiority of the Christian religion. We did not go inside, but the interior is said to be rather plain, but with a large gold altar.
Cannon guarding the Alhambra
While they look menacing, the cannons above post date any battles for Alhambra and were probably never fired in anger. We next wandered over to the “Palace of Carlos V” which seemed rather large but somewhat plain on the exterior, but had a rather unique interior. It had an open and round courtyard. This building was started in 1527 but ended up taking 110 years to complete.
The interior courtyard was more impressive than the exterior.
The enclosed parts of the building, around its rim, now house the Alhambra Museum and a Fine arts Museum. It was interesting to notice the architecture of the various buildings. Both of the buildings above followed more of a Roman style as they were built under Christian control during the Renaissance period. Other buildings that were built under Moorish control typically show a rather strong Moorish style.
Note the common Moorish “Keyhole” shaped arches.
While some of the structures built under Christian control did include some Moorish features, you could generally tell which buildings were built under Moorish occupancy and which under Christian control.
How would like to be the gardener who trims that hedge?
Throughout the complex, the various plants, hedges, and gardens were beautifully maintained. I cannot imagine how much work it must take to keep the hedge in the photo above trimmed so well. There were several other large hedges like this also, all well maintained.
This part of Spain is relatively dry and water is precious, so the various rulers and administrators would demonstrate their wealth and power by including lots of water features.
The Patio de los Arrayanes
The courtyard with the water feature above, The Patio de los Arrayanes (also known by several other names) , is surrounded by a building that served mostly administrative purposes in Moorish times. These included bath houses, the sultan’s work room, and audience room.
The Patio of the Lions (lions surround the fountain in the middle)
The Patio of the Lions is one of the best known structures because of the twelve lions, each of which squirt water, surrounding the central basin and fountain. Unfortunately, it was not functioning when we were there, so it was all dry. The building surrounding the patio consists mostly of open-air rooms with very ornate ceilings: some carved (below) and some painted. This video inside the Sala de la Reyes (Hall of the Kings) should give you a better idea of what some of the walls and ceilings looked like.
Another view of the ornate ceilings
As we came out of one of the buildings, we could look across a little valley outside the Alhambra and see a somewhat familiar place. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see some people standing along the road, just to the left of the church bell tower of the church in the distance. That is where we stopped for photos prior to getting to the Alhambra.
Looking back at where we had been earlier.
As we continued the tour, we passed a number of gardens, both decorative and productive. One of the courtyards had several orange trees, although these were different from most of the orange trees in the Alhambra. Most of the “wild” orange trees in this area are the native sour, or bitter, oranges and relatively few were the sweet oranges we normally eat (or drink). But, in this courtyard there were a couple of trees that are sweet oranges. (Sour or bitter oranges are considered to have come from southern Spain, while sweet oranges apparently originated in India.) You can tell the difference by the shape of the leaves, and these were sweet.
I was tempted to pick an orange to verify that it is sweet.
There seemed to be more and more gardens and water features, although we had not gotten to the real “gardens” area yet.
Some pools in the “Lower Gardens” (Jardines Bajas)
Several garden plots had lots of colorful flowers, while other areas had fruits (Pomegranates were ripening!), and vegetables. We next walked over to the entrance of the primary “gardens”, with some formal gardens with trimmed hedges, and some pools and other water features. There was also a small amphitheater in the gardens with seating for probably a thousand people. The gardens are a very popular feature in the summer when it gets very hot and the gardens provide a relatively cool escape.
The Patio de la Acequia (Court of the main Canal)
Even the canal routing most of the water to be used in Alhambra got a make-over to create a pleasant garden environment (above).
After touring the gardens, it was time to leave the Alhambra, but not before lunch! We were to have a group lunch at a restaurant just outside the main grounds.
Lunch time at this restaurant!
We had a nice lunch, complete with wind and roving musicians while we ate. The food was nothing special, but the environment and the musicians did make it a bit special. Following lunch, we got back on our bus and headed for our hotel in Granada. Andrea had offered to give us a quick “tour” of downtown Grenada and point out the Cathedral and a shopping area, so we joined him for this. A 30 minute walk from the hotel brought us to the Granada Cathedral.
A lot of people were in the square in front of the cathedral.
Just beyond the cathedral was a plaza with several restaurants and shops and just off that plaza, along a couple of narrow streets, was a shopping area with both very small, temporary, shops and some larger, somewhat permanent stores and selling all kinds of merchandise.
The streets were narrow with goods for sale on both sides.
We looked around for a little while, but didn’t find anything irresistible, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.
Toledo to Madrid: Friday October 21
Our destination at the end of the day was to be Madrid, but we would have a couple of interesting stops along the way. Once more, a fairly early breakfast and departure allowed us to observe a sunrise from the bus.
I prefer sunsets myself: sunrises happen too early.
After riding a couple of hours, we made one of our normal “comfort stops”. In addition to the usual small restaurant and souvenir shop, this facility had a rather major olive oil tasting section. Of course, if you tasted an olive oil you liked, they were fully prepared to measure out about any amount of that olive oil you might want to purchase.
The large urns had various kinds of olive oil.
We decided that we prefer tasting both wine and olive oil later in the day and passed on the opportunity to give it a try. Back in the bus and Andrea started mentioning the book “Don Quixote” and the play “The Man of La Mancha” with good reason, it turned out. This is the part of Spain where Miguel de Cervantes’s classic novel, “Don Quixote” is set. The play “Man of La Manchu” is essentially based on that book as sort of a “play within a play” so that today, the book, the play, and the book’s author tend to go together. The people in this area are apparently very proud of their relationship with the book and we started seeing Don Quixote figures along the road and streets.
At this point, Andrea announced that we would take a break and have a bit of a “snack” in a villa a little off the main road. As it turned out, several other buses were also having similar snacks.
This Don Quixote figure was about 15 feet tall in front of a small church.
We enjoyed the snack of cheese, ham, bread, and wine while examining the several figures spread around the villa. We also had to dodge some light rain showers while at the villa and getting back to the bus. Of course, there was the usual opportunity to purchase some Don Quixote souvenirs. We learned that, according to some people, the book Don Quixote is the second biggest selling book in the history of the world.
The villa had several Don Quixote figures.
They were quite a way off and are larger than they look in this photo.
A fairly short ride brought us to the city of Toledo (pronounced somewhat differently from our Toledo, Ohio). Toledo was once the capital of Spain so it has a significant role in the history of Spain. Like many medieval cities, it is located on the top of a hill or mesa or plateau, originally as a defensive measure to discourage attacks. Now that feature provides a very picturesque setting, but also introduces some problems. Neither the residents nor the visitors want lots of tour buses driving around the city, but the visitors certainly do not want to have to climb about 200 feet from a bus parking lot up to the city center. To resolve this, several years ago, the city installed a series of escalators to easily take visitors up to the top of the plateau. Once at the top of the hill in the downtown, there were very few vehicles traveling the streets.
A view of Toledo from an overlook across a river
In the photo above, you can see both the church of Santo Tome (on the left) and the cathedral of Toledo (in the middle). We would be visiting both of these over the next couple of hours. Like many medieval cities that are now tourist attractions, the narrow streets are used to advantage as pedestrian shopping areas with many shops lining both sides.
We’ve seen it before: busy streets with lots of shops and small restaurants.
Our local guide took us down several streets to and around the Primatial Cathedral of Saint Mary and we walked almost all the way around the cathedral, but did not go inside. It was started in 1226 but was not finished until 1493.
Primatial Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo
Like some other large cathedrals in Spain, it was built on the ground formerly occupied by a large Moorish mosque and was intentionally sized so as to completely cover the former mosque. About this time, a light rain began to fall, sometimes not so light, so we somewhat extended our planned visit to a silver and goldsmith shop. The only problem was that several other tours were doing the same thing, so it was a bit crowded. Besides the precious metal workers, there were numerous other medieval items like large swords and suits of armor. When I saw some of these items, I had to think of our younger son Lee, who would have loved to experienced the contents of this store.
Suits of armor were only part of the medieval “goodies” in this store.
When the rain let up, we headed out again and made our way to the Church of Canto Tome. We just looked inside briefly and did not see what I later learned was one the church’s major “attractions”, the painting The Burial of the Count of Orgaz by El Greco. What we did see was impressive though.
Iglesia de Santo Tome altar
After leaving the church, it was time for lunch; we had an hour or so of “free time” to look around and find something to eat. There is a large plaza in the middle of the city with multiple restaurants around its edges. We found an empty table and soon had a very nice, enjoyable, and very reasonably priced lunch. I must say that we almost always had good experiences with finding very good meals on this trip, and most of them included decent wine at an attractive price.
After lunch, out guide took us on a slightly circuitous route back to the bus, passing by (and into) the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca. Although there is some dispute, most experts agree that this is the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It was built in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, which would have been at the very end of the Moorish control of the region.
Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca
The Moorish influence certainly shows and the architecture definitely looks more like a Mosque than a synagogue. The almost pure “whiteness” of the interior is almost overbearing but is really a reflection of its namesake, the 'Synagogue of Saint Mary the White'.
Leaving the synagogue, we headed toward the bus, going over a large bridge over the Tagus river. We could look back over the medieval “Puente de San Martin” (St Martin’s Bridge) toward the picturesque city of Toledo. If the name of the river, Tagus, sounds familiar, it is the same river that we saw a lot of early as it is the river that flows past Lisbon and into the Atlantic ocean.
The St Martin’s bridge looked sturdy, but no vehicles allowed, pedestrians only.
End of Chapter 5
Back into the bus and we headed to Madrid to continue our journey.
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