Sunday, November 28, 2004
Leaving Madrid
We are leaving Madrid today. Yesterday we took a day trip to Toledo. It was
not as great as our guidebook said, but it was nice. A old style walled town
in the countryside, next to a gorgeous river gorge. We saw the cathedral
that was supposed to be really awesome, but it was almost totally under
contruction so we couldnt see half of it. And we saw two old synagogues. one
was converted to a church and apparently had some moorish history too, but
it was a real disappointment. There was nothing in it, but the church altar.
We walked in, took a circle around the big room and left. the only
interesting part were the moorish style arches that ran the whole length of
it on both sides. There was nothing there to suggest it was ever a synagogue
though. Then we went to the jewish musuem and synagogue. That was slightly
more interesting, but all the descriptions pretty much were in spanish
except these cards that were in english and basically told the history of
the jews from the diaspora to
present day, and included info on all the festivals and stuff. It was
really pretty generic. It was interesting to see the excavations of the old
building though. They think they found the old mikvah, but we didnt get to
see that.
I have found that I like El Greco paintings. (Seth says they look like anime
cartoons) So I was looking forward to seeing the El Greco musuem there.
Unfortunately it was all pretty much portraits of saints and bishops and
stuff. I dont really enjoy the religious themed paintings as much, but if it
sort of tells a story then it is interesting anyway. But the portraits are
almost always boring. Oh well, it was still fun to walk around the old town.
This morning we went to the El Rastro market. It is held on Sunday in Madrid
and it was really interesting and HUGE. Pretty much anything you could
imagine was there, people selling handmade stuff, people selling cheap mass
produced souveneirs, hardware, antiques, books, comic books, animals, -
basically just all kinds of stuff. It was fun to walk around and we bought a
few small things.
Now on to Seville. There is rain headed here so I hope it misses Seville and
continues on its way, but I fear we are going to get it in Paris.
Meg and Seth
not as great as our guidebook said, but it was nice. A old style walled town
in the countryside, next to a gorgeous river gorge. We saw the cathedral
that was supposed to be really awesome, but it was almost totally under
contruction so we couldnt see half of it. And we saw two old synagogues. one
was converted to a church and apparently had some moorish history too, but
it was a real disappointment. There was nothing in it, but the church altar.
We walked in, took a circle around the big room and left. the only
interesting part were the moorish style arches that ran the whole length of
it on both sides. There was nothing there to suggest it was ever a synagogue
though. Then we went to the jewish musuem and synagogue. That was slightly
more interesting, but all the descriptions pretty much were in spanish
except these cards that were in english and basically told the history of
the jews from the diaspora to
present day, and included info on all the festivals and stuff. It was
really pretty generic. It was interesting to see the excavations of the old
building though. They think they found the old mikvah, but we didnt get to
see that.
I have found that I like El Greco paintings. (Seth says they look like anime
cartoons) So I was looking forward to seeing the El Greco musuem there.
Unfortunately it was all pretty much portraits of saints and bishops and
stuff. I dont really enjoy the religious themed paintings as much, but if it
sort of tells a story then it is interesting anyway. But the portraits are
almost always boring. Oh well, it was still fun to walk around the old town.
This morning we went to the El Rastro market. It is held on Sunday in Madrid
and it was really interesting and HUGE. Pretty much anything you could
imagine was there, people selling handmade stuff, people selling cheap mass
produced souveneirs, hardware, antiques, books, comic books, animals, -
basically just all kinds of stuff. It was fun to walk around and we bought a
few small things.
Now on to Seville. There is rain headed here so I hope it misses Seville and
continues on its way, but I fear we are going to get it in Paris.
Meg and Seth
