Back in the USA 3

And danced to hippie music, and felt okay.

Segovia

Then up to the old Roman, medieval city of Segovia.  The aqueducts were amazing, and Anna Clair was so impressed she became an old, medieval Segovian woman.

Roman Spain

It's kind of hard to believe that this much of one empire (the Roman) still stands in another (the Spanish), but the video below attests to the grandeur:

..and its Montes

Bianca is studying the 18th-century history of the rural region in Castilla-La Mancha known as the Montes de Toledo. They are, quite literally, Toledo's Hills since the city of Toledo owned the land and the people who worked it.  The peasants tended livestock and turned its milk into the best cheese on the planet (hence queso manchego), they grew olives from crooked bushes, turned skinny, tall tree trunks into coal, and cut and dried tangled herbs like rosemary, which dots the landscape with its fragrant light purple blooms. Where else would you see

a sign in the street that says "Bull Crossing"? (And how much more Spanish can you get?). It's a rough road to roam, a road both ridiculed and revered by Cervantes. We were in love at first sight.

Toledo!

It was a long weekend. And when Spanish people take "long" weekends, they mean long (hello, worker-centered-government, anyone?) If a holiday falls on a Thursday, you get a four-day weekend. We took maximum advantage of ours, first with a two-day trip to the tremendous city, and former capital of Castilla and Aragon, Toledo. We stayed in the most fabulous hotel, an old cigarral (a kind of hacienda), overlooking the Imperial City.


Then, on to the sites, including the famous synagogues, the beautiful El Tránsito and Santa María la Blanca (obviously renamed after the expulsion), and the amazing Cathedral, finished after two centuries of work in that fateful year 1492. (More photos and video below.)

More Toledo

Cathedrals, synagogues, and a video below of things more profane (Bubby, please don't watch this!)...

More good things about Spain

Carousels sprinkled randomly in the city...

And the "Fiesta de la primavera" (Spring Fest), which is a costume day at school. I was Cenicientas, also known as Cinderella. Turns out the princess costume was popular among the female 2-3-year old set in Colegio Estilo.