Toledo

On Saturday we took a day trip to Toledo. It's about 2 hours from Avila and was the capital of Spain for many years before Madrid became the capital. It is a city with a lot of history, and a LOT of heat! The forecast was for 95 degrees and it sure was hot! I brought 3 big bottles of water and felt like I was drinking it the whole day. My hair only stayed down for about the first 15 minutes of our trip. WAY too hot for hair on the shoulders!

On the bus ride there, Shanna and I were sitting together. We were just going to sleep, but then we started talking and the view out the window was GORGEOUS. Seriously amazing. We were driving through the mountains and we were both so mesmerized by the views. I didn't even pull out my camera for the first while because I couldn't take my eyes off the world around us! We decided to stay awake then and we studied for our tests a little bit and jammed out to Wicked music. WE LOVE TO SING! Sorry to anyone who had to hear us on the bus. It was really cool at one point when we were driving up in the mountains and listening to Defying Gravity. It was so beautiful. I wish we had mountains or something in MN or ND!

Here's a group of us girls in front of the beautiful city of Toledo! Hooray for summer in Spain!

We first went to a big plaza in the city and hung out, got a little food, and got maps. Then we went to a history museum. I wasn't really in the mood for a history museum at the time, but there were a few cool things in there. We moved through it pretty quickly but while the other kids were still looking inside we went and sat up on the roof of the museum where they have a super cute garden and the view over the city was gorgeous.

We stopped and ate our bag lunches and then headed to the Cathedral. We have seen so many cathedrals and churches while we've been in Spain, so a lot of people didn't really want to go, but I'm glad we did! This cathedral was very different from the other ones we've seen here and I really liked it a lot! It's a little different because Toledo (Castilla de la Mancha) is in a different province than Avila, Segovia, and Salamanca (Castilla y Leon) and so the structure and thoughts behind it are a little different. It was huge and had a lot more color. There was an interesting part of it in the ceiling. There was a big cut out area letting light in through a window. It was like a hole to heaven and was so cool. Shanna and I couldn't take our eyes off of it. There were little statues of angels and people and cherubs and a scene was painted and the light was shining in perfectly. It was so cute and so touching.

After the cathedral we walked over to the Jewish quarters to look around there. Then we had free time to shop and wander around the city. It was so deathly hot and we didn't really feel like doing much of anything, but we survived and eventually made it back to the bus. The bad part was that once we were on the bus, we were so hot and sweaty that it was impossible to sleep. I really liked Toledo though and it's definitely a beautiful city I'd look forward to seeing again one day!