Side view of Toledo Cathedral from narrow street

Toledo Cathedral. Hard to photograph something this big with other renaissance buildings so close!

On our Old Town walk, we saw these spires and wondered, "What is that?"

Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, built 1477 to be a Cathedral for King Ferdinand Queen Isabel

As we walked up to the monastery, we noticed rows of chains on the walls and wondered ....

Relics/symbol of victory. Originally shackles on Christian prisoners before Christians took over.

Lovely cloisters with intricate stone carvings

A statue carved into every arch pillar of the cloister

Look at all those carved statues/part of each arch

Designed to be a Cathedral, but ended up a monastery instead

Intricate carved arches all around cloister which surround a courtyard

View of upper and lower sections of cloister with carved arches

Spires of cathedral/monastery from inside cloisters/courtyard

Fanciful carvings everywhere. This one caught Charlie's eye

Toledo

January 6 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 34 °F

We traveled by train to Toledo with a change in Madrid. Traveling on January 6, a national holiday, is like flying out of DFW before Thanksgiving (train station packed). Unknown to us, there were 2 trains headed to Madrid within minutes of each other and on the same track/platform. Naturally, we got on the wrong one! Not a problem, except that both trains were almost completely full and our seats were assigned on a different train. It was a bit of a scramble finding seats, but all went well.

Upon arrival in Toledo, we marveled at the small train station, built in the early 1900s in the Mudejar style to match the city's landmarks. Colorful, intricate tilework and the Moorish design... Impressive .

Our trip will be very cold from here on out, according to forecasts. We ventured into the cold to get our bearings and see a few sites before dark. See pics.Read more