Madrid and Toledo - two capitals
Day 9 of the tour "Two Poles of Passion": Toledo and Madrid - two capitals
Part 1 Introduction to Toledo
In the morning, an excellent breakfast at the hotel and at 9-00 departure for an elective in Toledo. 23 people from the group went to Toledo by bus, the rest either stayed in Madrid or traveled to Toledo on their own.
Today is Sunday and there are still few cars on the streets, so we drive quite quickly around the city, and then, when we stopped at a traffic light, I see a column of running people rolling out from the side street into the avenue, accompanied by police cars. And this column stretched for several kilometers. It is good that they ran along the other side of the avenue and in the opposite direction from us, and therefore did not interfere with our passage. That's how Madrid! Yesterday they held a rally until midnight, and today they have a long-distance race for health. They find time for everything. . . : ))))
Toledo is 73 km away, and after about an hour we drive up to the gates of Toledo, where our guide Rosa gets on the bus with us. This person loves his city very much, has lived in it for a long time, and tried to convey her love to us.
At the beginning of the tour, we again leave the city, cross the Alcantara Bridge to the other side of the Tagus River, and there, from the height of the observation deck, we admire the city lying in front of us, illuminated by the bright morning sun. It was here that Rosa told us the whole story of Toledo, arguing that the streets in the city are very narrow, and it will be difficult to gather a group for a story. Then, when we started walking around Toledo, I realized how right she was.
After a rather long photo session, we return to the city, the bus stops at the parking lot near the Tagus River, near the high fortress wall, and we go up the high escalator to the city center, and start the walking tour from Zocodover Square. Roza led us along a new, previously untraveled route, which she prepared for a group of art historians from Russia. Although we are not such connoisseurs as they are, we assessed the new route positively.
For two hours we walked through the narrow streets of the monastery quarter in the old city, stopped at its tiny squares, went into churches and monasteries. It turned out that Toledo is a city of churches and monasteries. I immediately counted them, and then lost count. To our question, who serves in these monasteries, Rosa replied that today's Spanish youth are not very willing to go to monasteries, so preachers travel to former Spanish colonies and find people there who want to convert to Christianity and move to Spain. After 10 years of service in the monastery, they are given Spanish citizenship and the opportunity to live in the world. At this, we began to laugh together that preachers go to the wrong countries to recruit ministers, in Ukraine they would have no end to candidates, and that they would have to arrange a casting to select the best.
Some monasteries organize bunkhouses for the homeless, and we looked into one such bunkhouse. The walls and floor are paved with colorful mosaics, very clean, but no beds. Along the walls there are several wooden benches without anything. That's the whole lodging house. Here you can only spend the night in warmth. Nowhere do homeless people indulge in comfort. : )))
We finish the first part of the tour in another square, not far from the cathedral, and we have one hour of free time to buy souvenirs. And at 2 pm we continue the tour already in the cathedral.
We went to souvenir shops, and I offered my husband to buy a small blade for 18 euros as a keepsake. But he didn’t want to, they say, “why do I need him”? And then at home I regretted that I had not bought it. So if in doubt, to take or not to take, then it is better to take it so that you do not regret later that you did not buy it.
I liked a very original locally made porcelain figurine, but when I saw its price of 515 euros, the desire to buy it immediately disappeared. We admired in souvenir shops a huge number of blades, knightly armor, bought two books on Madrid (8 euros) and Toledo (5 euros), and went to eat ice cream. Some tourists went on their own to the Jewish synagogue.
At 14 o'clock we all approach the cathedral. Rosa's partner meets us there, and she and Marina go to get entrance tickets, therefore, we are the very first to enter the cathedral. We are immediately taken to the Treasury, again so that we do not have to stand in line later. The treasury in Toledo resembles the treasury in Genoa. Probably all cathedral treasures have similar exhibits.
One can only say that in Toledo the treasury was much richer. In Toledo, the Tabernacle is a 3-meter tower made of gold and silver. In general, the cathedral in Toledo made a strong impression on us: a symbiosis of beauty, grandeur, wealth and history. Everything in it was the very best of all the cathedrals that we visited on this tour. And the main altar, and the choirs with a marble sculpture of the White Virgin, and the sacristy with paintings by great artists: the main painting by El Greco "Tearing off the clothes from Christ (Espolio)" is located in the sacristy of this cathedral above the marble altar. Our tour of the cathedral lasted 45 minutes. Rosa very enthusiastically took us around the cathedral and talked about its main parts. It was possible to take pictures here, without a flash.
Our departure from Toledo is at 15:00. We have booked an excursion to the Royal Palace in Madrid for 16-15. Therefore, we say goodbye to Rosa and go back to the bus. It seemed to me that if we didn't have to leave, Rosa could talk about the cathedral for hours.
In Toledo, I would not refuse to come again.
Part two : Madrid - the royal city
We are returning to Madrid, and judging by the traffic, we will not make it to the Plaza de Españ a in time. Marina calls our Madrid guide Alina and warns her about this. Alina agrees to postpone the tour for half an hour later. During the journey, we manage to refresh ourselves on the bus with our Barcelona supplies.
We ran to the Royal Palace almost back to back to the appointed time. And there the situation is such that if we do not have time, then the tour is canceled. 13 people went to the Royal Palace. And not in vain!! ! We are again led by Alina, our yesterday's guide. The group is small, so a microphone is not needed here. At the entrance, our bags are driven through the scanner, we ourselves also pass through the frame of the metal detector.
It was very interesting for me to look at the official working residence of the Spanish king. After all, we have so far been in the royal palaces, which have long since become museums. And here we saw a luxurious royal palace, where official ceremonies are held. I can say that the palace is not inferior to Versailles in terms of luxury, and some rooms were even more beautiful and luxurious than those of Versailles. Here, only the garden near the palace is much smaller and more modest.
But there were exhibits such as a unique collection of five Stradivari violins, where else can you see this?
I recommend everyone to see the palace, but it seems that there are no individual visits there, but only with a guided tour. And it’s not allowed to take a photo there, it’s understandable, the palace is functioning, so everywhere in the halls there were guards with walkie-talkies and vigilantly watched the visitors. About 20 halls are open for inspection, all other halls are office premises of the royal residence.
An hour later, we leave after the excursion to the square in front of the palace, and we still have time to visit the Prado Museum. Today is Sunday, and after 18 hours there is free admission. There are 7 people who want to go to the museum like us, and Alina leads us to the nearest metro station. There we warmly part with her, because we were very lucky with a guide in Madrid.
We come to the museum, and there are a lot of people there. We get a ticket worth 0 euros. Why they issue these tickets, we did not understand, I assume that for the statistics of free visits. We also show our bags there. With large bags and backpacks they are not allowed in, but they are sent to take them to the storage room. Photography is also prohibited here.
We were almost before the closing of the museum, went around the entire first floor with paintings by great artists. There was no plan or guidebook in Russian, we took it in French : ))) After all, the names of artists in any European language are understandable.
My husband is not a big fan of painting, he went with me only because of the toilet. But then he also got carried away, although he complained that his legs hurt.
But, when we reached the halls in which Goya's paintings are exhibited, he liked them. Yes, me too. I had never seen Goya's paintings in person before, but here in five halls a whole collection of his best works is exhibited. For us, these were the most interesting paintings in the museum.
I really wanted to buy a book in Russian there called “100 Masterpieces of the Prado Museum”, but as always, the line of Chinese discouraged standing behind it. The time was already approaching closing, and I did not want to waste precious minutes standing in line.
By the time we left the museum, it was already getting dark. Having learned from passers-by where the nearest metro station is, we walk in the direction of the Atocha station. You have to buy a ticket from a machine, but I don't have small money, only 10 euros. I stand near the machine and hold a bill in my hands. A man with a girl comes up to the machine for tickets, and I ask him to help me. He does not understand English, but he understood that I needed two tickets. Inserts my 10 euros into a separate slot in the machine, and presses the number two. The change rained down and the treasured tickets were in our hands. It turns out that there are different receivers for small change and banknotes.
We thank the responsive people of Madrid and go to the metro tunnel, and on the way we are guided by the map, which line we should go to. In Madrid, although not as many lines as in Paris, there are still 9 metro lines. We see that from the station "Atocha" to the station "Chamartin" on the blue line we will reach without transfers, and go to the blue line. We drove for about half an hour. Stops were frequent. And they went up from the subway on three escalators. Our line is the deepest.
But now we are already at the hotel and we can sum up the day. Everything we saw today we liked. But we saw Madrid only yesterday on a sightseeing tour and today from the bus window. Therefore, there is a desire to come to Madrid again, and walk around its squares on your own, and also visit the Almudena Cathedral.
And I haven't seen the whole Prado Museum yet.
So I tell you goodbye Royal Madrid!
