Ta-li-do Toh-lei-do

First off I LOVED THIS CITY!!!! Toledo is absolutely gorgeous!
This post is going to be mostly a picture blog since you know I actually took pictures this time....

But here's just an intro while I wait for all my pictures to load so I can choose which ones I'll use.

Toledo is a super cool city. At one point it was the capital of Spain well the capital of wait there was of Spain. The Catholic King and Queen lived in this city as they worked to unite the different parts of Spain that were under the rule of many different people--at this point there were still Arabs in the Iberian Peninsula. Granada was still controlled by the Moors as some people say. So in Toledo there's a palace and a cathedral that was built especially for the Catholic King and Queen--Fernando and Isabella. What I believe is the most interesting thing about this city is that when the 'Nando and Isabel decided to move their residence to Madrid this city basically got abandoned and because of that it got stuck in the past. So walking around this city you really feel like if you were wearing different clothes you could be walking around in the 14th century or something like that--I don't remember the actual years there were there but it's old feeling. There is so much cobblestone and teeny tiny alleyways that it's absolutely gorgeous. There isn't a lot of commercialism either so if everyone dressed up like the proper time period it would totally trick your mind to thinking that you got transported back in time....

So to start out your picture tour I've got a picture from the bus of the view as we're driving around the outskirts of the city.

Yeah it's a little blurry....sorry....

But then our guide let us get off the bus and take some pictures....this was my attempt at a panorama but you know not actually put all together and stuff...

I hope the gorgeousness of this view translates well enough.... We got back on the bus only to get off again a less than a mile later. Below is the view from where the bus parked us....

 We eventually walked over the bridge and I just thought the plants below looked strange so I snapped a picture....in the picture they don't look as strange I'd say...

 It was a pretty short walk to get to the cathedral where the pictures below were taken. It was a pretty cool church and there were lots of details all around. It was built for the Catholic king and queen because they wanted to be buried there--they're actually buried in Granada--so there are a lot of symbols that pertain to them. You'll see the letter f and the letter y everywhere for their names--Isabel spelled her name Ysabel back when she lived.

 The courtyard in the middle of the church is acutally a Moorish style. Many homes in the Arab world have this type of courtyard to show wealth or something like that. This one had orange trees which I thought was awesome.

 The walls on the interior part had all different carvings like the two below. I personally thought the top one was cool so I took a picture. And then the bottom one our tour guide pointed out to us and explained it as a monkey, wearing a monkshood, taking a dump, reading a book. Those were his exact words since he said it in English. He though it was hilarious and I mean it does look pretty silly....

After the cathedral we went to a building that was built as a synagogue using Arab style architecture but then was forced to become a church in medieval times and then became a museum and is referred to as a synagogue. Did I lose you? Yeah I had trouble typing it out too so don't feel bad. I didn't end up getting any clear pictures so unfortunately you don't get to see this building but it wasn't super super cool so don't feel like you're missing out or anything. 

After this synagogue thing we walked on...

 This is the royal seal of the catholic king and queen above.

 My attempt below at being cool and artistic...fail...

 Below is a picture of my group's tour guide. He was pretty cool and knew a lot of stuff. His voice though was like an announcer's voice but that could be because he spoke so so slowly. I think I have a video of him speaking I'll post...

 These next few pictures are pictures of the royal palace. It's pretty cool looking in my opinion.

 At lunch we had beer that is made in Toledo. It was actually pretty good and the bottle looks pretty cool.

 At that ends my trip to Toledo. After the tour we got on the bus and went to the hotel. Since our hotel was so far from downtown we didn't end up leaving it and just ate dinner there before leaving for Granada in the morning.