toledo

Toledo, Spain

Posted on by Rhonda R

March 24

Hola! Today we had a day trip from Madrid to Toledo. A motor coach picked us up near the hotel. Once we arrived we took in the city by a panoramic view from above with views of the Cathedral and Palace. The Tajo river runs along the border and creates a natural defense on one side where the other side of the city is surrounded by walls. After the pano view we went into town and stopped at the Sword making shop. This shop makes jewelry, trinkets, swords (Lord of the Rings swords) and other items with inlaid gold. We watched a blacksmith and an apprentice at work. Once we finished that we went into the city center with a local guide for a walking tour of the city. We saw the Cathedral de Toledo, Santo Tope cathedral to see the painting by El Greco (Burial of Count Orgaz), we had free time for lunch and shopping.

We met after lunch and started the trip back to Madrid via our bus. Once we returned some students with with Señor to Estadio Bernabeau, where Real Madrid plays futbol (soccer). The rest shopped and wandered at their leisure around Madrid until meeting time for dinner. We had dinner as a group at Prado Tope. We all enjoyed this restaurant. The food was excellent.

Tomorrow we have an early day. We catch a train at Atoche station at 8:40, to Valencia.

Viaje a Espana – Coming Soon!

Posted on by Rhonda R

I have an upcoming trip to Spain coming up, March 21 through March 29th. I hope to live blog while touring the country. I do not want to blow out my data usage but I want to blog my experiences. I may actually blog it first at my LiveJournal site and then copy/paste and modify over here after that initial post.

I will have a brand new Canon Rebel to use in my journeys so I am uber excited!!!

My (tentative) Itinerary is as follows:

  1. Saturday March 21, 2015, departure from Ohio en-route to Madrid
  2. Sunday March 22, 2015 Arrival Madrid, Spain
    1. Visit Palacio Real  & Garden – The Royal Palace
    2. Visit Plaza Mayor
    3. Puerta del Sol/shop
    4. Free time
    5. Dinner
  3. Monday March 23, 2015 – Madrid –
    1. Visit The Prado Museum (Art)
    2. Visit The Retiro Park; Crystal Palace, The Alfonso XII Monument
    3. Visit Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas (Largest Bullring in Spain)
    4. Visit Taurino Museum
    5. Shopping/Free time in Cheuca area
    6. Dinner
  4. Tuesday March 24, 2015 – Excursion to Toledo
    1. Visit Sword Maker
    2. Local guide provided to tour Cathedral de Toledo
    3. Visit The Church of Santo Tome – Which houses El Greco’s Burial of Count Orgaz
    4. Free time
    5. Dinner/Return to Madrid
  5.  Wednesday March 25, 2015 – Ave Train to Valencia
    1. Walking tour (with guide) of Valencia
      1. Barrio del Carmen
      2. The Cathedral (said to house the Holy Grail Chalice)
      3. Free time
      4. Dinner
  6. Thursday March 26, 2015 – Valencia
    1. Mercado Central
    2. The Science Museum
    3. I’Oceanografic (World’s Largest Marine Park)
    4. Dinner/free time/night life
  7. Friday March 27, 2015 – Bus to Montserrat
    1. Renaissance Basilica (houses La Moreneta)
      1.  Bus to Barcelona in afternoon
      2. Visit La Ramblas/Free time
      3. Dinner/night life
      4. Monumento a Colon (Christopher Columbus monument at the end of La Ramblas)
  8. Saturday March 28, 2015 – Barcelona
    1. Visit Parc Guell (Gaudi)
    2. Visit Barrio Gotica (guided) and enter Cathedral
    3. Visit Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family) Cathedral (audio guide)
    4. Free time (I plan on going to El Camp Nou – Home of FC Barcelona – Futbol Club)
    5. Dinner and a flamenco show/night life
  9. Saturday March 28, 2015 Return Home
    1. Depart from Barcelona arrival late evening

Spain – Toledo – 2013 – Day 1

Posted on by Rhonda R

     Well, we arrived 3/24/13 en Madrid and took a aútobus to Toledo, south of the city. We met with our guide, Hugo. The ride took about 1/2 hour ride it seemed. I saw some familiar sights along the way. The large toro along the side of the road. The place we stayed to freshen up last time. Toledo es muy bella. It is a rocky, hilly town. It is also a very Medievil town. This week is Semana Santa week so all the Catedrals were closed in the morning for mass & local celebrations. So, we traveled around the city first for the panoramic tour. Then we were let out to take pictures from the high point overlooking the city. Beautiful sight. From there we headed to our hotel and locked up our bags then went wondering for an hour. We met back at the main plaza y went to our restaurant for lunch. I have the name but in my bag. I will add it later. It was once a house and was very nice.
After a early lunch (around 1 is early lol)

     We net up our local tour guide, Juan. We had an audio link so we could stay together and hear him. We went to see El Greco’s museum. Fascinating just as before. The painting progression, the ceiling frescos, the Catedral itself where it’s held is interesting. Walking to and from anywhere is a tour with the cobblestone and inclines and such. We made our way around to The Catedral de Marìa de Toledo. Huge church both in and out. You don’t have to be religious to be amazed by it, the history it tells of Spain’s history. After that we went back to el hotel y cleaned up. I took a small nap. the wifi would only work in the hall way so it became a meeting place. Then at 7 we went back out to wonder and then came across one of the processions for Semana Santa. We had seen kids and adults walking around all day with branches for this. This one was Palm Sunday’s processions for kids.
     

     Oh in the main plaza the guide showed us Calle de Toledo de Ohio. Also in the Catedral is a pice of art donated by an artist from Toledo Ohio. We all liked that. My phone battery died while in there so some of the girl took pics and said she would send me some. We ate in the main plaza at Café Té outdoors place. Very nice atmosphere. We wondered a bit and Shannon got a bottle of vino y yo Pepsi jeje 🙂 I came back to the room and wrote awhile and fell asleep watching bugs bunny in Español lol. Now I woke up about 430 and decided to write 🙂

Buenas noches for now. Later today es Seville.

 

Original Post on my LiveJournal