Toledo, Old Stuff and Eating and Drinking

We just spent a couple of days in Toledo, which is sort of the seat
of Catholicism in Spain. It's a cute little mediaeval town, with
lots and lots of twisty streets, laid out in an incredibly confusing
lack of pattern.

We had a great time wandering around, getting lost, and getting
found all over again. The actual monuments in the town were somewhat
less interesting.

The cathedral charged five Euros to get in during the morning, but
was fortunately free from 4PM 'til closing. I was sorta pissed about
getting charged just to get into the cathedral, but was okay with
wandering around it in the afternoon.

For the most part, it was kind of like any other European cathedral
built in a roughtly Gothic style, but it had a really cool skylight
that was inserted in the 17th century,

It was amazing to come around the corner, behind the sanctuary,
to find light and wild rococo stylings. The big oval opening
to a dome (which had large windows in its side, providing the
list) was lined with sculpture, some of which was looking
right down at us in the cathedral.

One was even hanging upside down, holding onto the cable supporting
a lamp providing a bit more illumination. Yow, it almost felt post-modern,
the way that the statues were sticking out of the wall and actually
craning their necks to look down at us. All the rest of the statuary
in these kinds of cathedrals seems to ignore the folks in there.
How amazing.

This was the Transparente; hopefully I'll have a chance to look it
up on-line. I didn't get any pictures (cameras were prohibited in
the cathedral), but I really wish I had, as no good postcards were
available of the Transparente. Doh.