Toledo

The city is on the curve of the river and sits on a rocky mound where every available inch has been built upon: churches, synagogues, mosques and houses, heaped upon one another in a haphazard fashion.
We arrived early on Friday afternoon in the rain with storm Emma closely on our heals. The parking was quite limited especially for the likes of our van so we had to park some way off but with a great view of the northern side of the city.

Dodging the showers as best we could we found our way up the escalator and through one of the gates walking towards the old jewish quarter. It was quite difficult to find our way around but eventually we found the fascinating El Greco museum, part of which includes the type of  house he would have lived in as well as some of his original paintings.

One of the ancient Jewish synagogues was visited next which had strangely been constructed in similar fashion to a mosque. The crossover of religions in past times in Toledo were not uncommon.

We decided not to visit the Cathedral or the Alcazar this time but there were still one or two interesting museums showing the long history of the town, and more El Greco paintings .....  I think we have seen enough of those now!

We loved Cristo de la Luz  which started life as a very small mosque and was built in 999AD and rose above street level. Two centuries later it was transformed into a church and an apse was added, being only 80 square metres in total. A lovely garden and view across the old town gates.

For us, Toledo appeared quite dark and intimidating at first but maybe it was because of the dull showery weather, lack of spaciousness and narrow hilly streets to negotiate.

 All still very medieval ....... until at last we found a lovely square and finally started to enjoy the surroundings.

The birthday lunch helped too by the way!

PS.  If you ever need to buy a sword,  a replica WW2 automatic machine gun or sheath knife, this is the place for you!  Shops loaded with them everywhere......bizarre!