Dogs and a Cat

I don’t suggest trying to see the entire city of Toledo and the Prado Museum (for free!) in one day. Like a bunch of dogs and one cat in the bed of a pick-up truck, it might all fit, but it won’t be best. At least, it wasn’t best for my feet.

I had bought a ticket for a train to Toledo that left at 6:50, but I got a bit turned around (as always) and arrived at the station two minutes after it had left. There is a reason this blog is called the misadventures of Jewel! So I got a different ticket, ate breakfast, and left for Toledo at 7:50 instead.

This turned out to be a good thing, because nothing opens until 10AM anyway.

Do you know the feeling of centuries of history weighing down on you? It’s a weird feeling for a Chicagoan, but it’s unavoidable –

staring up at the Alcazar, the fortress of Toledo

looking out from a Jesuit church tower

finding an antique shop where I got 6 coins from Roman Hispania until the late 1800s for 12€.

Over the course of my day in Toledo, I walked from the Alcazar to the Iglesia de San Ildefonso, to the Cathedral, to the church of Santo Tomé, and to the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, running down my iPod battery to wend my way through medieval streets and alleys. 

Ahem – wend is too nice a word. I struggled my way up and down cobblestone streets, bumpy with age, smooth from wear, and slick with the water from air conditioners (I hope). They were narrow, from the days when all traffic was by foot or horse, cool from the shade and dusky from the high walls.

I ate my lunch in the church tower before realizing that I couldn’t,
but at least I didn't make a mess.

I sweated my way down steep staircases, through dusty alleys, up steel stairs, through pristine marble halls and echoing stone corridors. 

I also saw a well-preserved human skeleton over a door, but that’s par for the course.

Kudos to the people who manage to drive through medieval streets with five corners in one place and none of them marked. And to the people who manage to avoid getting run over.

By the time I left Toledo (passing the sign that said any sharp souvenirs had to be packaged and wrapped), it was 3:30. I had just enough time to arrive in Madrid, rest a bit, and set off for the Prado Museum – walking, of course. It was only twenty minutes from the apartment.

Every day, the Prado is free from 6-8 PM. This is the time to visit the Prado for Madrileños and idiotic tourists who would rather take their chances than plan ahead. I fell into the latter category because I didn’t want to pay twice, just in case.

Having taught art in Spanish 3 last year, I had a rudimentary knowledge of what I was looking for. Of course I had to see Las Meninas, but for some reason I was looking forward to seeing Gaspar de Guzmán, conde-duque de Olivares, a caballo far more. For those of you for whom that title makes about as much sense as why aliens wear hats, here’s the painting: 

Nice, isn't it?

I also saw a Mona Lisa that had been painted simultaneously with DaVinci’s more famous, more polished one. It was painted by one of his pupils, and I personally think that for all they say it isn’t perfect, it’s far closer than I would ever be in a million lifetimes. After all, my drawing of a bus in Spanish class ended up looking like a Cardinal’s logo, beak and all. 

Cardinal buses aside, I don’t recommend walking through the Prado in high heels when your feet are already blistering. It’s worth it; don’t get me wrong. It just isn’t smart.

On my way home, I stopped by a phone store to buy a cheap phone. My $10 Tracfone doesn’t work in Europe, so if I wanted to be able to communicate, I had to have a Spanish phone. 29€ and forty minutes talking with the employees later, my phone was all set. It will only work without roaming charges in Spain and Romania. Don’t know who chose that combination; I personally would have chosen Spain and Italy. But it’s nice to be able to plug it in directly to the wall without using my converter.

I finished up my packing, while Susana went to a picnic at 9 PM. When she returned at 11:30, we each enjoyed a glass of ice-cold water, because it was still crazy hot.