Hostal Cristina Toledo

... debating whether to put it all on your back or to distribute the contents into a hand held bag as well that will make your arm lose circulation but relieves some back stress. (I know, woe is me, poor little European traveler. No sympathy, I get it.) Anyway, I opted for the 2-pack for this travel day. I knew I was going to be on a long bus ride so I had my computer and books and earphones, etc. in a smaller bag. The hulking backpack that looks like a tightly wrapped ...

... pass by to help out in the garden, baking bread, gathering wood, repairing parts of the house and taking care of the two and a half donkeys (Trinity is pregnant) and the chickens. I felt really welcome and felt directly at home and part of the whole project. We helped out wherever we could: gathering and carrying wood ...

... paraded through the streets of Toledo on Corpus Christi day. Of the church’s many chapels, the most interesting is the Mozarabic Chapel where the Visigothic Mass is still said (in Latin) every morning for the Mozarabic community in Toledo.

This afternoon, we are on the train to Seville where our friend, Philip Hurst, will meet us. The three-hour ride is a needed rest from our hyper-tourist pace.

... love to see places and to know that there people of different religions could live and florish together… the Sinagoge Maria la Blanca is a testimony!

With so much historical stones, so much immortality in iron and brickwork, the ephemeral figure of Toledo is almost human… still, it is beyond time… its shape is a concession and a defiance to life and death, a monument to short-lived things.

... on finit par le faire griller (vers 16-18 hrs), avant de le laisser refroidir sur le comptoir (fin de soiree) et de deposer les restes dans le congelateur (nuit)... On gele le matin, on a trois epaisseurs (les seules que l'on ait) et a 16heures, on espererait ne rien avoir... *** Je ne sais pas si les Portugais et surtout les Espagnols ont compris le but des noms de rue... et au Portugal des ...

... up with her, as I hadn't seen her for 3 years. In Toledo we saw the huge cathedral and attempted to see a mosque, but by the time we found the entrance to the mosque it had closed for the day (it closed at 2 pm) The cathedral in Toledo is huge, I mean like, really big. It is not St. Peter's Basilika in the Vatican, but it is big. And there is a lot of gold filigree all over - a bit too much for my taste. But getting in wasn't easy either, or cheap. It cost 7 euros and we ...

... the three-storey Water Staircase, where an endless supply of cool, refreshing liquid rushes down through channels carved in the banisters. The buildings themselves are much more subdued, in line with the idea that this was a family retreat, not a display of power and wealth. But the power and wealth are evident anyway; anyone, even in the 21st century, who could afford such luxury would not be an ordinary joe. Finally, I head down the long path back to the ...

so the first weekend there we all went to corzola, the largest national forest in spain. absolutely breathtaking. you may hike for hours and hours, but it is definitly 'marece la pena.' grenada, the second weekend, by far my favorite city that i visited in spain. a very beautiful, chill ...

... that's already opened this Sunday. Things are locked tight in most of Granada today, but everything's open in the "tourist" area, and I'm only a couple of block away. It's a fine, sunny day, promising a warm afternoon...much better than I could hope to expect back home in Ottawa at this time of year.

... the Spaniard Joaquin Sorolla, was being exhibited in the Museo de Santa Cruz. He was much taken with the city, spending time here in 1906 to paint the cathedral and Old City. He much preferred the city to Madrid and expressed the wish that artisans would inhabit the inspiring town before it sank into a backwater, its historic beauty forgotten. Thanks to tourism Toledo's past remains glorified and admired. However, walking along the El Greco trail I noticed many ...