Day Trip to Toledo

Today's day trip to Toledo was quite amazing. The little medieval town is just at the top of a a steep, rocky hill, which meant the town has the most spectacular views of the surrounding area. The whole town was also decorated for a festival happening the next day, so Spanish flags, flowers and color adorned the streets. Also noticeable on the train ride over was the amount of red poppies growing everywhere across the countryside, adding a drop of intense color to an otherwise muted landscape. While in Toledo we had a lot of time to take in the views, explore the town and go up and down countless hills, stairs, escalators. One such set of escalators, designed by Martinez Lampana was almost carved into the hillside and had a series of sloping ceilings and walls. We also paid a visit to the town archives, one of the few buildings in Toledo not built during medieval times. The architect himself, Ignacio Mendaro Corsini, gave us a tour of the building fit in among an ancient church and the ruins of an old convent. The building does very well to fit in among the ruins, touching them lightly but not diminishing them in anyway. The details of the archive were also extremely well thought out and again played off of the ruins colors, plan, and history. Ignacio himself was very well spoken, not that I understood everything he said as I don't speak Spanish, but his passion for what he was saying came through in his tone of voice, and gestures. This last picture was something we saw in one of our wanderings through the town-some kids tried to use chalk on the street, but, clearly, to no avail....