Change My Spain

Today was the big excursion to Toledo! We loaded into an 8-passenger van with Ramiro and Belen just before 10AM and drove the 45 minutes to Toledo (pronounced To-Lay-Dough, not like the one in Ohio).

Church? Synagogue? Mosque? Who knows??

Toledo's pretty cool because it was one of the first capitals of Spain, but what that means is that it's been controlled and populated by a lot of different people, all of whom figured out a way to leave some kind of mark. The Jews, for example, left little tiles with menorahs printed on them inlaid in the sidewalks, the Muslims left a strong influence in religious architecture, and the Catholics left the bloody graves of their enemies.

In any case, the result is pretty kooky. Example: we toured an Alhambra-style synagogue called St. Mary's. Confusing? Yes. The Islamic art and architecture built during the Christian era in Spain is called "mudejar" (moo-day-har), and mostly consists of churches that look like mosques.

We had lunch at a kind-of upscale terrazza place (not our wallets' particular style, but it was convenient), then did a little wandering around for photo ops before checking out yet another Islam-influenced cathedral. I spent more time in church today than I have in my whole life.

Mosque-turned-church??

A couple of fun things about Toledo: most of the city is on top of a mountain, which would mean a lot of climbing, BUT some brilliant architect (slightly more recent than the mudejares) built escalators up to the summit. The winding cobblestone streets are neat, but there's no way I could climb them that far up.

FUN FACT NUMBER 2: We bought a box of fresh marzipan from an order of cloistered nuns through the iron bars of a dark stone building's narrow window. How many times do you get to say that?

Forgot to mention: Last night, after updating the blog, we strolled around Salamanca's Vogue Fashion Night, which consists of late-night shopping at most of the neighborhood's upscale stores with a number of open-bar receptions, from which we sampled Mahou (Madrid's saddest beer) and mason jar mojitos. We met up with a few of the other WUSTL kids later and almost went clubbing, but we, along with Miguel, decided to bail after half an hour in line outside the club. We caught the last metro back to Salamanca and were home in time for a whopping five and a half hours of sleep.

Thanks for reading!

Drink Responsibly!

Probably staying in tonight.