Toledo!

I just realized that you'll think I've been wearing this brown dress every day!

 OK, so I got to go on another Friday excursion through the Institute of Franklin this week. I was really happy about this because sometimes the list fills up too fast and there isn't room on the bus to go. These excursions are so awesome because we get to go and see parts of Spain for free with guides!
Toledo, is a small city a little south of Madrid where there is a strong presence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. It sits atop a hill and is surrounded by a river, giving it a very protected feeling.

The entrance to the City

The entire city is built as if on terraces with sharply inclining and declining, labyrinthine roads.

This street and house are so old that you can easily imagine the princesses and caballeros of Historic Toledo

There is an expression, "yo tuve una noche Toledano", which means I had a really bad night or a night without any sleep, because in historic Toledo, in its cramped streets, there were many fights on horseback, screaming from balconies, and parties, making sleep very difficult.

 The first church that we visited, la Sinogogo de la Santa María la Blanca, is highly representative of Toledo itself, because it contains the presence of the three religions. The walls and ceilings have the characteristic detail of a Muslim mosque while the floors are composed of tiled stars of David and in the far end of the room, there is a Christian addition.

facing the addition (notice the cross and the stained glass window)

The christian addition

The characteristic detail of Muslim architecture

1000 stars of David

 The Monasterio San Juan de los Reyes was the second place that we visited on our excursion. This monastery was beautiful, but I don't have much to say about it except that it is yet another demonstration of the former might of the catholic church in Spain.

The patron saint capable of giving you a boyfriend or girlfriend if you pray to it

This door is approximately 5 feet tall--People used to be so short!

an orange tree!

In between the visits to the two churches, we took a relaxing lunch in the plaza. Cierra and I bought delicious nectarines from a frutería and ate them while we tramped up the beautiful, cobblestone, winding streets and admired the random wares, including armor and swords, visible through the windows of little stores.

After a long day of walking up thousands of inclined streets, we were ready to go home.