Spain - Toledo - Ohhhhhh Toledo!!!

Although not as early as we wanted, we did get up and out of our room by about 10am. Our intent was to walk from our hotel, which is outside the old part of the city of Toledo, down into Toledo. We were ready to venture out on our own, but the friendly girl behind the front desk offered us a map, and sketched out our path into the city. The walk was only about 20-30 minutes, and it was a beautiful morning for it. The skies were a perfect blue, and I don't think there were any clouds anywhere in the vicscnity. With Vee's Rio Carbon mp3 player pumping Hoobastank through my ear buds, it was the perfect walk, and in my opinion, over too quickly. We were at the foot of town in just 4 songs time. The first place we came upon was a large Franciscan monastary. We ponied up the cost of admission, not more than 4 euros, and spent about about 30 minutes or so walking the grounds. The gardens inside were pretty, with their orange trees and water well in the middle. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the church, and that would be the case for pretty much every place we'd visit today. I guess in Toledo, they think it would be bad for business to have tourists sharing pictures of the insides of their tourist destinations in fear of other potential tourists seeing the pictures or videos and deciding they'd no longer need to visit. Go figure. Anyway, it was a nice start to the day. We continued walking the narrow corridors of the city and next came upon historical museum of Toledo, which was also inside of an old church. It was extremely well-done with lots of audio visual, but unfortunately for me, it was all in Spanish. I wished so much that I could understand as there is a HUGE amount of history here and this place seemed to have it all. The next major stop was the Cathedral of Toledo. This place was absolutely unbelievable. I remember being similarly stunned when I had been inside of some of the old cathedrals in England when I studied there for a Summer in college. There really were not words to describe it. The thought that recurred in my mind was this: if my life were a film, and each recollection were a single frame, it would pale in comparison to the number of artistic pieces in this cathedral. For Vee, only in Rome could anything compare. Absolutely staggering. Not just the shear number of works, but the history, the magnitude, the significance, the grandeur. Sculpted wood and marble, paintings, tile, frescos, gold and silver and jewells, crowns, sculptures, fabrics, clothing, with every single square nanometer accounted for. Unfortunately, once again, "no fotos". I wanted so badly to film the insides because there is no way to communicate its grandeur. This is where kings were coronated. This was the religious heart of Spain before the royal court was moved to Madrid in the mid 17th century. Next, we explored the Biblioteca of Toledo. Once again, we were not allowed to take any pictures from inside, but the views from the top, where they had a cafeteria, were well worth the visit.