Toledo: you should really go
If you've been to York and loved it... then you'll probably feel the same about Toledo.
Like Canterbury and York, it is fairly over run with tourists. But it does have a lot.
This town is on a very steep hill. Once again Spain leads the way with municipal escalators to take you from the river to the town centre. There are five in all.
Toledo is a great centre. It was a capital city of the Visigoths. The Moors ran a great chunk of Al-Andalus from here. The rulers of Castile used it a a major centre until power moved to Madrid. The town has strong Jewish and arabic infuences.
El Greco, the painter lived here and did sone fantastic work in the Cathederal. There's a Canaletto in there too.
The Cathederal respects its foundation by the Visigoths in the 6th Century and then bursts into the kind of flamboyance that only great faith and acess to Mexican silver mines can enable.
The decoration inside the cathederal is impressive. For me,
is the most stunning. Its complex altar piece illuminated by a highly decorated hole punched through the wall of the cathederal much higher up.
Definitely worth a visit for the paintings alone. But if youve got an day to spare, hop on the train to Segovia and take a look at the cathedral there.
There was too much to do in the day we allowed for the town, so we may come back.
It was lovely getting away from the crowds of visitors and looking through some of the smaller streets too. The walls would be worth exploring.
Tomorrow we're carrying on with the Moorish theme and heading down to Cordoba for a few days.
