Madrid and Toledo

13th Century Gothic Cathedral High Altar
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After breaky we headed off on the bus for our Madrid city tour. It is very cold this morning – a chilly 1 degree when we leave. The city here is such a contrast to where we have been of late. The buildings with their quaint iron balconies remind us somewhat of parts of London. Our local guide tells us about the buildings, statues and squares as we breeze by in the bus. Our first photo stop is at the monument to Cervantes. This monument is surrounded by olive trees and the reflection pool in front of the monument is covered in a thin layer of ice! From here we also get a glimpse of the Royal Palace. This is the closest we can get and the view is not that great with too many trees in the way.

Madonna and Child temple on Cathedral
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Some of the older buildings are amazingly decorated with one place I snapped having a gold gilded dome. The buildings seem to have height restrictions and many have been restored to their original condition. We pass by the Cibeles Fountain on the way to our highlight visit of the morning – the Prado Museum. We are not allowed to take photos in here, as the many paintings by famous painters such as Velazquez, Greco and Goya are many and need to be protected. Our guide explained to us the differences in their painting styles, and even the differences in the lifetime of each painter. It was unfortunate that we did not have more time to spend here as we only got to see the highlights of the collections.

Has anyone seen Robbie??

Outside the Cathedral
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We headed back to the hotel to pick up our final three travel companions, one fellow had had to sleep the night at Atlanta airport due to flight delays due to the snow storms that are travelling across the south of the US. We then headed off on an 50min bus ride to the religious capitol of Spain – Toledo. This centuries old walled city almost appears as it once was, if not for the modern cars parked on the cobblestone streets. We stop at the central square and are given 45mins of free time to find ourselves some lunch. We find a small cafe that has heaters outside and order some grilled pork, potatoes and salad. We end up having to gulp this down as the food arrives just 5mins before we have to leave for the meeting point.

Panoramic view of Toledo
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We then start our walking tour of Toledo, weaving through the maze of streets. We stop at the huge 13^th Century Gothic Cathedral, with its central choir and heavily gilded alter. Even though photos are not allowed, people are clicking away and the stewards don’t seem to mind in some places. It is almost overwhelming the artwork that has gone in to the many areas of the cathedral with its high flying buttresses, stained glass windows and decorated columns. One of the side rooms is filled with religious paintings and has an amazingly painted ceiling.

Streets of Toledo
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We walk some more and enter the El Greco Museum to view his famous Burial painting. After this we head down hill to cross one of the Moorish bridges and cross under the city gate to meet our waiting bus. As some point on the way down we lose one of the tour group, and the hunt is then on to find him. 30mins later he is still not found and our local guide is getting very worried. She has talked to the local police to tell them of our missing person and heads back up to the top of the town via our route to see if she can find him but to no avail. It is unfortunate that the fellow who as gone missing is the same guy who was delayed in Atlanta.

Cervantes Monument
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The local guide decides we have to leave without poor Robbie, and we drive to a nearby Damascene steel workshop to see a local artisan apply gold thread to steel buttons before they are fired and finished. We are then escorted to their showroom where we have the ability to purchase any items we wish and to utilise their restrooms. While the group is in here, both the local guide and our guide leader headed back to the centre of town in search of our missing companion. It is now past the time we are supposed to be back in Madrid and we find that Robbie has left all his bag and all his hotel documents on the bus, so doesn’t have the hotel info on him to return on his own.

Cibeles Fountain
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The decision is made to head back to Madrid, and as we drive down past our original drop-off point – who is standing there but a lonely and cold Robbie. Everyone is relieved – most of all him. With our group now complete we came back to Madrid.

With the cold weather, my nose had been running like a tap – where does that stuff come from!! I was eager to get back into the warm hotel. Our tour guide was encouraging us to get out onto the streets of Madrid for dinner to get a feel for the people, as the locals love to socialise outside.  Unfortunately I had been advised by the doctor to try and keep as warm as possible, and given we had been out in the cold all day, thought it best that we stay inside.

Gilded Dome on a building
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It has been a great day, seeing many great sights and we are keen to see what awaits us next in Seville.