Wanderung 17

No Rain in Spain, not even on the Plain!

April-May 2008

Friday May 2nd 2008

Noon position: Toledo, Spain.

Bob:

Assuming that at least some things would be open on the 2nd of May that had been closed for the 1st, we mapped out a plan of attack for our second day in Toledo. Our plan consisted of taking a series of escalators up a different side of the Old Town area and then striking out for the Iglesia St. Thomas (recommended by Frommer's guide for a picture by El Greco)and the historic synagogue that was just down the hill from there, after which we would cut clear across the city to check if the Santa Cruz museum would be open.

Energized by a nice breakfast at Hotel Martin, we walked over to where we had seen the escalators the previous day and found the entrance without a problem. It's really quite a lengthy sequence of about 6 distinct escalators that finally deposited us on the edge of the hilltop where the Old Town section of Toledo was situated. Working our way across the city required a rather zig-zag route because most of the streets seem to run up and down the hill rather than circling around it, but with many stops to consult the map and the GPS we made it to our goal, only to find out that the church and synagog didn't open until 10:00 a.m.

When the church finally did open, we paid our 3.20 Euro and went inside to see the El Greco painting. It really was fantastic and either it is in a miraculous state of preservation from the 1500s or it has been restored. The painting seemed to be in perfect shape, the figures were quite clear, and the colors were very vivid. The painting, a wall fresco, is quite large; I would estimate about 50 feet high by 30 feet wide, but that's a guesstimate. The subject is the death of some king or hero in a suit of armor and his entrance into heaven helped by a sympathetic Mary and the pleading faces of many of the heavenly host. The faces were just fantastically well done. Each one was as distinctive as a portrait and quite individualistic, and every single one was expressing strong emotion. The crowd around the dying kind on earth was, naturally enough, sorrowful, and the heavenly host at Christ's side had faces implying strong entreaty. How El Greco managed that, I don't know, but take a look at it yourself if you get the chance and see if you don't agree.

Monika:

Since it was a Friday and not a holiday we had hopes for a few open venues. On the south side of the city was a little church whose claim to fame was an El Greco fresco. We had seen the church yesterday when we were looking for the El Greco musuem, but the long lines in fron of it had discouraged us. Frommer's had suggested to get there at 10AM when it opened. So we took the escalators that we had seen yesterday up to the top. There were altogether 6 escalators that slowly brought you to the top. From there you had a beautiful view over the Tagus. We now made it with map and GPS across to the Iglesia St. Thomas. Since it was only 9:30, we went down to the river embankment. On the way we saw some beautiful damascene thimbles in another artisan store. We went in and picked one up that showed a pair dancing the flamenco (on the side of a thimble!).

Finally the curch opened, we paid 2.30 Euros each. The only thing in the church was the gigantic fresco by El Greco "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz". It was indeed beautiful and you really have to come early, so that you can really take it in. Everyone of the people is different and portrays a different emotion. An astounding masterpiece (I am not quite sure whether it was worth 2.30, but then the El Greco museum was still closed).

Bob:

Unfortunately, even paying 3.20 Euro did not gain us entry into the church itself, which surprised and disappointed me a bit. So we went down the hill toward the river and over a block to the synagogue, where I paid 2.40 Euro for entry but Monika got in free (the over 65 rate that I have not yet achieved). The synagogue was not currently active as all the Jews had been expelled from Spain in 1492 (it must have been a banner year for Ferdinand and Isabella!), but the old building had been restored over the last 20 years into something approximating its original appearance and converted into a museum about Judaism in Spain.

The main hall of the synagogue was quite large, airy, and impressive. Both the latticework stone windows and the high ceiling with huge wooden support beams and patterns in the roof were very pretty. The wall where the sacred scrolls had been kept was adorned with beautiful stone carvings or plasterwork pretty much from floor to ceiling, and smack in the center was a triple arch in what looked to me to be a distinctly Moorish style.

Monika:

Since we were close by, we stopped at the Synagogue del Transito. It was an old synagogue from the 14th century, built with heavily moorish influence. The large prayer hall was truly beautiful.

Bob:

After expelling the Jews the Christians had converted the synagogue to a church, and the rooms off the sacristy to one side were the site of a small museum with Jewish artifacts and expanations of Jewish history and culture. Each room had a laminated English-version explanation of the general topic of the room, and those at least gave us a clue as to what it all meant even though they were not keyed to the individual exhibits. I was impressed by a set of damasquene plates that were over 500 years old but honestly looked brand new. Golly. Outside was an atrium where they had placed some of the gravestones retrieved from Jewish graveyards all around Spain. I'm not sure the original owners would have approved of the relocation of their gravestones, but it did seem to fit in with the rest of the museum.

Curling around the rear of the building we went up to the women's gallery where we had great views of the main room and some more exhibits on the daily life of Jews in Spain. Dresses, dinnerware, and various implements of daily life were on display. Reading the English summaries, I at last learned about the major festivals in the Jewish calendar and their origins. The synagogue allowed us to take non-flash, non-tripod pictures, so we tried to capture at least some of the exhibits on film (chip?).

Monika:

. Around it was the museum housing artifacts from the Jewish culture in Spain through the centuries. There were old scrolls, plates, and clothing. In each room, they even had a leaflet with English explanations. Best of all, seniors (over 65) got in free!

Bob:

Then it was time to hike up and over the crown of the hill toward the Plaza Commercial and the Santa Cruz museum. Not only was it open, but admission was free! Yay! Photography was not allowed in the interior exhibit areas, but we were allowed to take pictures of the interior courtyard and the artifacts displayed around its perimeter. Those included some large and well done ceramic tile pictures, some large vases or urns, and decorative carvings over the doorways and such. Very nice.

The interior exhibits were hall after hall of famous Spanish artists. From the Middle Ages to the present, Spain has had a great artistic tradition and almost all eras of it were represented in those exhibits. About 3 hallways of exhibits were on temporary loan from the Prado Museum in Madrid, however, so if you visit this museum I'm afraid you may not get to see as much as we did. We enjoyed, of course, the "old masters" works many of which were religiously themed. The painters of the 1800s, seemed to be mostly represented by nicely done but ultimately boring portraits of nobles, high-ranking citizens, and rich folks.

But what impressed me the most was the work of the 20th century painters. Now that was surprising because as the Gentle Reader probably knows, ordinarily I'm not overly impressed by modern art. These Spanish painters were, however, coping with the 1936 Revolution and its aftermath, and that gave both realism and a very strong emotional edge to their paintings. They were clearly painting straight from the heart, and I found the paintings focusing on the Spanish Civil War and its horrors to be particularly moving. Spain obviously suffered very much during that civil war, and I was just glad that they had been spared even more bloodshed and strife during World War II.

Monika:

After spending almost two hours in the synagogue and museum, we thought we try our luck and check out the museum Santa Cruz across the city. Indeed, it too was open, and this museum was completely free. It not only was a beautiful building around a two-story atrium, but it housed three different exhibitions: a ceramic exhibition with ceramics from all over Spain that one man had collected, an exhibition by the modern Spanish painter Miguel Pietro who painted some heart rending scenes of the Spanish civil war, and an exhibit of portraits from the 19th century by several diffent Spanish painters, including a couple of paintings by Goya. They were on loan from the Prado. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the different exhibits. So take my word, is was well worth the money we did not pay. Indeed it seemed, the less we payed, the more we got to see.

Bob:

By then we were both tired and hungry, so we meandered back toward our hotel where we had spotted a donner kabob place where we had lunch. The "tuvak kabob" both in Toledo and in Granada referred to spiced chicken meat, lettuce, and tomato with sauce in a pocket of pita bread, which was just the ticket for folks like us on low-fat diets. After lunch we continued back to the hotel for an afternoon siesta (me) and computer session (Monika). We had considered taking the car and driving out to a nearby city where they made the ceramic tiles we liked, but people were double and triple parked in the area around our hotel. Clearly we'd have never found another parking space once we left, and rather than face the "where do we put the car?" hassle we stayed in Toledo for the rest of the day.

We did do an evening walkabout to check out the neighborhood stores and see if we could find spoons for eating cereal in the morning. I had already acquired "cereal bowls" by the simple expedient of eating large plastic jars of yogurt and then washing out the jars. After rambling around for the better part of an hour without finding a food store of any type, we finally found a hole-in-the-wall general store where we located a set of 10 plastic spoons for 80 cents. Although our immediate neighborhood seemed to have a severe dearth of food stores, we found almost every conceivable type of automotive store--everything from automobile parts to windshield replacement, electrical system repair, body work, and even air conditioning!

Speaking of airconditioning, Hotel Martin apparently did not believe in turning on the airconditioning in the Spring. Our room did not have functioning air conditioning and we found that when the sun was shining into our windows in the afternoon and evening it became uncomfortably warm at times. Fortunately it always cooled off rapidly when the sun set, so we had no trouble getting to sleep after sundown. Who decides those "star" ratings, anway? We were supposedly in a three-star hotel, but I would have far rather have had functioning airconditioning and skipped the bathroom bidet!

Monika:

After a belated lunch at a Kebab place, we went back to the hotel for a Siesta. We had thought of driving to Tavera a town 70 km west of Toledo, that specializes in ceramics. But Toledo was even more crowded today than yesterday, and we were afraid, that we would not find a parking space, if we left. So we decided to leave Tavera for another day another time.

We went out one more time to find a grocery store, or at least a store that sold spoons for cereal in the morning. After wandering up and down (and I mean up and down) a few streets, we found all kinds of autoparts stores and furniture stores but no grocery store. Finally, when we were almost home we found a little hole-in-the-wall store where we found a package of 10 plastic spoons. We then called it an early evening, since we wanted to get a good start in the morning.

Copyright 2008 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
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