This morning, in the little hotel restaurant right below our room we ate the breakfast that’s included with our room rate. It was a fairly typical basic hotel breakfast with juice, coffee, croissants, cheese, ham, butter and jams but it was okay and it gave us a good start to the day.
At 10 am, when the Cathedral opened, we picked up a couple of complimentary umbrellas from the stand at the front desk of the hotel and walked down to the ticket office in the rain. For the entry fee and audio guides, we paid the seniors’ fee of 9 euros each.
We spent over 2 hours in the Cathedral. To see the building itself would have been worth the price of admission but we also saw some incredible artwork. As usual, the Visigoths had some type of church on this site, then the Moors had a mosque and finally the Christians built this cathedral over a span of 250 years. Behind the high altar is the Transparente, a Baroque masterpiece of sculpture illuminated by a hole cut in the roof. We would find it hard to believe that such art exists without seeing it.
In the treasury is a 10 foot high tower used to transport the Holy Communion wafer during the parade of Corpus Christi. The 5,000 individual pieces are made with many diamonds, emeralds and rubies inset in 400 pounds of gold plated silver and an inner section of 35 pounds of solid gold. A little excessive perhaps but quite a sight. There were lots of other rooms and chapels full of art.
When we finally got out of there and came back to our room, Anita wasn’t feeling well. She rested for the afternoon while I went out for a bite to eat and a wander around, trying to figure out where things are. At one point, I took a picture of the view over the river to the surrounding hills.
Tomorrow isn’t supposed to rain so we’ll probably walk up to the history museum in the Alcazar, the old fortress.
At 10 am, when the Cathedral opened, we picked up a couple of complimentary umbrellas from the stand at the front desk of the hotel and walked down to the ticket office in the rain. For the entry fee and audio guides, we paid the seniors’ fee of 9 euros each.
We spent over 2 hours in the Cathedral. To see the building itself would have been worth the price of admission but we also saw some incredible artwork. As usual, the Visigoths had some type of church on this site, then the Moors had a mosque and finally the Christians built this cathedral over a span of 250 years. Behind the high altar is the Transparente, a Baroque masterpiece of sculpture illuminated by a hole cut in the roof. We would find it hard to believe that such art exists without seeing it.
In the treasury is a 10 foot high tower used to transport the Holy Communion wafer during the parade of Corpus Christi. The 5,000 individual pieces are made with many diamonds, emeralds and rubies inset in 400 pounds of gold plated silver and an inner section of 35 pounds of solid gold. A little excessive perhaps but quite a sight. There were lots of other rooms and chapels full of art.
When we finally got out of there and came back to our room, Anita wasn’t feeling well. She rested for the afternoon while I went out for a bite to eat and a wander around, trying to figure out where things are. At one point, I took a picture of the view over the river to the surrounding hills.
Tomorrow isn’t supposed to rain so we’ll probably walk up to the history museum in the Alcazar, the old fortress.
Too many Holy Toledo jokes? Spectacular! Keep the dream alive!
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