Holy Toledo! And other parts of Spain!

Sorry about the infrequency! We've been super busy lately and moving around locations almost every other day! And as always, we've been having technological issues.
Anyways, we've spent this last week in Spain!

We arrived in Madrid on the evening of March 9, so we really didn't do anything of interest for the rest of that day, other than going out for tapas. In case you didn’t know, tapas are a very popular food in Spain. They are basically small portions of food that you can share among friends at any time of the day (except for siesta, when everything closes). The next day, we went to the Prado Museum, touted by Spain as the best collection of paintings in Europe. We started out at the special exhibition, which is currently a collection Spain’s royal armor, called “The Art of Power”. Most artifacts were from around 500 years ago in a time when armor was used to prove wealth and power. The royal family would commission a piece from the greatest artists and armor makers of the time with elaborate gold and silver designs. In the permanent exhibit in the Prado, we saw paintings by world famous artists, mostly Spanish. Among the most famous were Velasquez’s “Las Meninas” and El Bosco’s “El Jardin de las Delicias”.
In the afternoon while walking through Madrid’s Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol, we saw dozens of mimes (los mimos) and street performers. The mimes ranged from a wookie to a three-headed table to a puppet popping out of a toilet. If you give them money, they will move or take a picture with you, but some of them were so creepy that you didn’t even want to be near them. We also saw a fun mariachi band on the street and actually even knew a few of their songs, thanks to Spanish class. Since Madrid is a huge city, the plazas are always bustling and the streets are night are always full, despite Spain’s cold spell while we were there.


After three nights in Madrid, we drove to Toledo, a smaller city famous for their damascene art, a style used for inlaying black steel with gold, silver and copper wire. The craft, like the city, is centuries old and sold at just about every kiosk and small store in the city.
We spent most of our day there at the Cathedral, which took 250 years to build, starting in 1226. Because the cathedral took so long to build, it has Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classical styles of architecture. The main points of interest were the portrait room, the sacristy, the treasury, and a collection of all the archbishop’s hats and robes. In the portrait room, there were portraits of every archbishop since the church was built. It was interesting to see how not only the styles of paintings changed, but the archbishops became increasingly older, probably due to longer life spans. Additionally, the archbishops themselves began to look more modern, with plastic-framed glasses and more contemporary body language for posing. The sacristy was the room where all the priests would change into their robes. Inside of the room, there were 19 paintings done by El Greco and a ceiling fresco by Lucca Giordano. On the fresco, there was an angel whose toes seem to follow you around the room. The treasury held a giant 400 pound tower for the communion wafer to be paraded around town yearly. It was about twice as tall as me and built out of silver and gold. Seems like a lot for a wafer, doesn’t it? The treasury also held gifts to the church from other cities and churches as well as very old bibles.
The morning we were leaving Toledo, we went to an exhibit focusing exclusively on torture and torture devices used during the Spanish Inquisition. Along with the more well-known devices, such as the stock, gallows, and burning stake, there were also iron chambers filled with spikes, a wheel that crushed the person against the wall, a skull crusher, and a breast stripper (to be used heated or cold). The museum was absolutely terrifying, since all the non-wood devices were original and actually used in torture. It was also horrifying to think that one wrong move your spying neighbors saw and reported could easily be cause for your torture. So many victims were abused and killed without even knowing what they did wrong.

After Toledo, we went to Cordoba, formerly the location of a huge tri-religion convergence and major power of Spain. At one point in history, the Moors, the Christians and the Jews all lived in Cordoba in basically perfect harmony for hundreds of years. However, a few hundred years before in the Inquisition, tensions started to rise along with suspicions and expulsions of individuals and even certain religious sects.
The major highlight of Cordoba is the Mezquita, a Church turned Mosque turned back into a Church. The interior is filled with 850 red and blue marble columns from 786 AD, which we all agreed looked a little like something from Willy Wonka’s. In 1236, the Mosque turned back into a Church when King Ferdinand III conquered the city. It was so interesting to look at one side of the building and see a very Moorish Mosque, then turn around and see an incredibly Gothic Church. It pretty much felt like two separate buildings.
We also visited a Sunday morning market in Cordoba, which was probably a mile long. We made it through less than half of it and saw everything ranging from jeans to craft supplies to food, all priced cheap. It was fun to see things like jeans for 6 Euro and delicious dried fruit. As with all of our Spanish cities, we spent a lot of time in the old section of the city. All of the old sections are basically similar with narrow and windy cobblestone streets, where getting lost is easy and part of the experience. Around a corner could be anything from a great view of the church to a little garden and statue.

Next, we drove to Sevilla, a relatively large city in southern Spain. Even though it’s big, it was so authentic. They still have traditional flamenco shows, bullfights, and other typical Spain characteristics. One of the best parts was a large, old church (we went to lots of religious building, as you can probably tell) which was home to Christopher Columbus’s tomb and a bell tower with a fantastic view. The tomb was this huge inscribed marble base with four bronze men carrying a bronze casket on top. Colombus’s bones have been moved so many times though, so we all began with different ideas of where he was buried. However, this is where he is now. We also climbed up the Giralda (bell tower) to the top, which was a windy and steep climb on a cobblestone path. The Muslims used to ride horse to the top of the bell tower for their call to prayer five times a day, which although it would be quicker than by foot, we couldn’t believe that horses could make those tight turns. The top had a great view of all sides of Sevilla, but we didn’t want to stay up for too long since it was getting close to three and we didn’t want to go deaf from the bells ringing.
We also visited a museum about the Inquisition in Sevilla, which really made the Inquisition so personal by showing that no one but the Inquisitors are safe. It was in Castillo de San Jorge and showed the excavations of the original architecture. It was presented in a very high technology way that related the Inquisition with today and the Declaration of Human Rights.
On our last night in Spain, we went to an authentic Flamenco performance. We sat in the front row, right in the center, close enough to touch the stage, which meant that not only did we have a great view, but we also were in the best place to get hit with various objects flying off the dancers. Each dancer performed once on their own and then again at the finale altogether (which we were allowed to videotape! Look out for the video soon!) and were accompanied by a guitarist and two male singers. There were three female dancers, two male dancers, a female singer-dancer, three male singers, and two guitarists in total. Everyone looked like they were so engrossed in the dance and having a great time during the entire show. All of the performers were also so excellent! In the first dance, we were hit with a stray hair comb off the dancer (we got to keep it), the second dancer sprayed us with his hair gel and we were hit with dust flying off the floor from the third dancer’s huge dress. It was so awesome!