Whew! Another long, but very good day! After breakfast this morning, we took the train to Toledo, a medieval town 30 minutes from Madrid, famous for its huge, gothic cathedral with its ornate golden altarpiece and an El Greco painting titled The Spoliation (Christ being stripped of his garments before the crucifixion).
Upon arrival at the train station we had a 25 minute walk uphill into the town center, some of which was via cobblestone streets and some via escalators (I know, there's nothing medieval about escalators). It took us a little while, but we found our way to the cathedral in time for the noon mass. To our surprise, this was a confirmation mass attended by the bishop of the area and at least 5 other priests. The choir consisted of approximately 10 or 12 seven and eight year old boys who truly sang like angels. When we came back through the church as tourists later in the afternoon, we discovered this area closed off to tourists, so if we hadn't come to mass, we never would have been able to see the ornate altarpiece up close and personal like we did.
Long story short, after mass we wandered around Toledo, through the Jewish Quarter and past the El Greco Museum, toured the rest of the cathedral and then headed back to the train station for our return trip. We didn't take time for lunch so by the time we got back to Madrid at 6:00, we were all starving. Grabbed a quick bite to eat, accompanied by sangria, and then headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the beginning of our Camino pilgrimage tomorrow. Looks like it's going to be 11:30 before we get to bed tonight.
All the pictures I took today were on my camera, so I'll need to wait for Rich and the computer before I can upload them to this blog. I've added placeholders.
Toledo Cathedral
El Greco Painting
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