We took a one day bus trip out to Toledo, which is beyond Madrid from Salamanca and a hard four and a half hour bus ride.  This is the home of the famous Spanish steel swords and they sell them from various shops in the street.  While there we saw the major high points.  This included Santo Tome and the painting of the Burial of Count of Orgaz by El Greco, El Museo el Greco, the Sinagoga del Transito, a Jewish sinagogue that was converted to a catholic church, and the Monasterio of San Juan de los Reyes.  The major show case is the Cathedral that contains a huge collection of art by El Greco, Goya, titian, Rubens, Velázquez, Caravaggio, and Bellini.  Huge and fantastic.

This is the bridge across the river, which formed a natural barrier to invasion.  The picture below shows the other bank.  Sorry, I couldn't get the whole bridge into one frame.

 

 

This is the crest of King Phillip which is on the door of the bridge house just as you come to the city from across the bridge.

Those things hanging from the wall are shackles that were used to chain prisoners to the wall of their prison.  Later, these were bought by wealthy people and hung here on the wall of the church as recollections of the torture these poor folks endured.

 

This is a covered walkway in the monastery.

 

We went into a monastery and this is a detail of the elaborate carved wood ceiling.

 

The altar in the Cathedral.

 

Rafael, our Ferguson, talks about the altar's art.

 

The Crucifixion, by Murillo, I think.

 

The Virgin by El Greco.

 

Our Ferguson lectures to the group in the cathedral.

 

A view down to the river which appeared to be pretty polluted.

The old folks standing by the river overview.

Sallie with some statues that are older than she is.

A view of the steeple of the cathedral through one of the narrow streets.

City Hall.

 

Looking down to the weir which is supposed to speed up the flow of the river.  Pretty green looking water, huh?

Ramiro and Sal in front of our "Five Star" bus.  This bus was small, slow, hot and NOT 5 star rated.

Wind generators located along a ridge line.  They used a lot of these around this part of Spain.  I saw them from the train as we were going out to Salamanca the first day and this was my first chance to get a picture relatively closeup.  There must have been a hundred of them.