Toledo Cathedral

West facade and tower; the building is
so hemmed-in, Medieval-style, there is
no vantage point from which you can
see much more of the exterior than this

A last judgement in one of the chapels; the middle
right panel shows those going to hell (always our
favorite) including the very famous adulteress with
the flaming crotch

There was not enough light for the altar (and
windows were not their forte), so they cut a
big hole in the roof, then decorated it in massive
 Baroque style ("Baroque" is Italian for "way
over the top")

More of the ceiling hole decoration

In the Treasury, this is the 8 foot silver
and gold monster they parade around the
city annually for some sort of special
Eucharist

Central nave

Unicorn misericord in the choir; there were scores
of such secular and sometimes risque figures in the
misericord section (where you put your bottom
isn't holy)

The seat backs in the choir all had carvings depicting the
reconquista, the "liberation" of various Spanish towns and
cities, this one Salamanca; military historians, we read,
come to study these depictions to learn of the development
of arms and strategy

Here you can see the tiered nature of the choir seating...
misericordia, then the battle scenes, then famous Spanish
bishops, then figures from the Bible, specifically Christ's
ancestry

The altar, totally over the top (and a lot of
gold from Peru and Mexico, one assumes)

The Baroque organ; there was also a
neo-classical one...

Toledo Cathedral is billed as Spain's finest. It certainly was the most interesting we have seen here so far. One of the chapels holds 18 El Grecos plus many other masters, Spanish and Italian. The Treasury is small but studded with, um, treasures. The best part, for us, was the choir, which was hands-down the very best cathedral choir we have ever seen. I am sure we spent more time in this remarkable building than most infidels. Photography was not permitted, but guards were sparse and not particularly interested, everybody else was openly shooting pix and movies, so we indulged ourselves a bit too.

Holy Toledo

Alcazar, Toledo

You see a lot of blades in Toledo, these in the Cathedral gift

shoppe

Marzipan church (Church of St. Marzipan)

Entrance to the church of San Tome, site of
El Greco's greatest painting (so they say),
the Burial of the Count Orgaz (no pix

allowed)

There it is, the Burial of Count Orgaz, right off

the web...El Greco is an acquired taste that Vicki

and I seem to have acquired; his paintings are

all over, mostly in Toledo, but also in the Prado,

the Escorial, etc.

Typical Toledo street, I mean, alley

You also see a lot of Toledo gold...

Miguel Cervantes surveys the Calle Cervantes

Very important building

The countryside, La Mancha, from the hill top in Toledo

(also the Rio Tejo, which we last saw in its estuarial state

back in Lisboa)

What a perfect image: Toledo was the long-

time capital when the Moors were finally

driven out of Spain in 1492; it had been

their capital too, but was among the first

major cities the Christians re-took

[Not pictured: the Zocodover, that is, the main square; from the various guidebooks you get the impression of great size and majesty; it is not a lot more than an intersection where the bus stops]

We spent a couple days in Toledo and one night at the Camping El Greco, with the river below and the city beyond. Toledo is muy touristico,  but so rich in history and sights and atmosphere it doesn't matter. It is definitely El Greco's town, with major and multiple paintings at the Cathedral (no pix) and at the museum, and also at the Tome church.

Across Portugal and Spain

Sculpture (seriously) at the Camping Lisboa

campground, in Monsanto Parque, Lisbon;

a cool place, the nicest municipal campground

we have seen so far

Our campsite at Camping Lisboa

Driving across Portugal; enlarge this: below you can see the

cork trees (a variety of oak), the bark (that is, the cork) stripped

on the lower trunks; further up, a variety of pine, almost

umbrella-shaped, I have never seen before; and further

above, the green rolling hills, dotted with trees; it is a

beautiful countryside; northern (coastal) Spain is mostly

Eucalyptus trees, sometimes dense forests of them,

sometimes very large, with some pine and oak and others

A non-touristy hill-top castle and town

Solar panels, miles-long, in Spain

And a truly engaging way of disguising a cell tower

Alert readers will recall that a) our Roadtrek RS Adventurous camper van is not winter-worthy; and b) we have had to pay a lot of attention to, and even alter our itinerary in view of, the weather.  Add in the fact that Europe is suffering, in December and January, some historic cold weather. We spent another day or so in Lisbon, mostly doing chores and such, and getting the oil changed ($700, again), and then the weather in Spain broke or appeared to break for a few days of temperatures (night-time) well above freezing. So we made a dash for Spain, first Toledo, then Madrid, then El Escorial, then Segovia, then Avila....

More Belem

This ad is all over Portugal; our Google

translator is struggling to find its meaning

We return to this evening's scheduled programming: the

Monastery of St. Geronimo, across the park

The very famous Monument to the Discoveries; that is, the

Age Discoveries, which Portugal truly led

Prince Henry at the lead

The Tower at Belem, the last of Portugal the Explorers would

see upon leaving, the first they would see should they return

In the Tower of Belem

The Portugese crossed the Atlantic by air, from Lisbon to

Brazil, in 1922, five years before Lindbergh; a replica of

the plane in Belem

Church of St. Geronimo

Ceiling and column in the church of

St. Geronimo

Altar; OK, it's pretty Baroque

Tomb of Vasco da Gama; he was the guy, educated in Prince

Henry's navigation school, who found the way, past Africa,

to India, the Indies, and Portugal's golden age; no mean feat

Detail; a caravel, of course, the ship of the Age of Discovery

Geronimo!

OK, if you are a US male of my vintage, you know that "Geronimo!" is what US Army parachuteers exclaimed as they jumped out from the plane in WWII. According to Hollywood. Possibly not this Geronimo. Little did I know, as a nine-year-old, that St. Jerome would come to have a very different meaning--the scholar, the contemplative saint--later in my life. Belem's St. Geronimo monastery and church are two of the major sites of Lisbon. Except for the windows, neither was seriously damaged in the 1755 earthquake.

San Geronimo monastery and church, Belem

San Geronimo cloisters

Incredible stone work throughout

For example...

Tile in the refectory (the parable of the big britches)

St. J himself, with pet cat

Refectory

\

Arcade in the cloisters

All through Portugal the churches were featuring folk art

nativity scenes--this, at St. Geronimo--was my favorite

OK, if you are a US male of my vintage, you know that "Geronimo!" is what US Army parachuteers exclaimed as they jumped out from the plane in WWII. According to Hollywood. Possibly not this Geronimo. Little did I know, as a nine-year-old, that St. Jerome would come to have a very different meaning--the scholar, the contemplative saint--later in my life. Belem's St. Geronimo monastery and church are two of the major sites of Lisbon. Except for the windows, neither was seriously damaged in the 1755 earthquake.

Belem

Sunday morning we took the bus out to Belem, down the river a few miles, in an area the 1755 earthquake did not destroy, and which contains several of Lisbon's major monuments.

The Coach Museum; early in the 20th, the Queen of Portugal

realized that coaches were going to become a thing of the past,

and so she converted the Royal Stables to a museum of royal

coaches; a fun place

Central nave of coach museum

Not solid gold, hopefully

The landau in which King Carlos and his son, the heir, were

assassinated, 1908; pretty much the end of the monarchy in

Portugal

Bullet holes...

The Rio Tejo, Portugal's great river; we encountered it later

upstream in Toledo; by the time it reaches Lisbon, it is an

estuary, like the Gironde in Bordeaux; the bridge was done

by the same firm that did the Golden Gate in Fan Francisco;

the Jesus statue on the right

The San Geronimo monastery in Belem; more later