Toledo

I had only heard good things from people about Toledo, but to get there required taking a train to Madrid and then a high-speed AVE train to Toledo. We were originally going to make a separate weekend out of Toledo, but it didn't make sense to take the train to Madrid twice, so we decided to add a day onto our trip to Madrid last weekend. And it was well worth it!
As with most of our trips, they can't be simple. We took the train to Madrid on Thursday afternoon and then another one to Toledo. When we got the directions from the lady at the train station in Santander, she made it seem as though you went up the stairs from the first train (Madrid-Chamartin) and the high-speed station (Puerta de Atocha) was right there. She didn't mention that the two train stations were actually 7 kilometers apart. Once realizing this, we were told that since we had a train ticket, we didn't have to pay for a metro ticket (how you got between the two stations). So we found our way to the metro trains upstairs. We got on two trains and then immediately got off of them because we weren't sure they were the right one. After getting on a third one, we realized that all three of them would have taken us to Atocha. Of course, it was rush hour and the metro was really slow, so our hour in between trains was passing too quickly. About halfway through the trip, Tarah and I looked at each other and realized that even though the metro was supposed to be free, we were going to need a ticket to get off of the metro....then the panic set in. We had 10 minutes to not only get to our next train, but also figure out how to get past the sliding doors that needed a ticket in order to open. We got off the train and actually found it quite easy. We just slipped through the doors right behind people that put a ticket in. (When talking to our professor about this after the fact, he told us that it was fine and people ride the metro for free all the time. Didn't keep us from freaking out most of Thursday evening, though). After running through the Atocha station, we found our train and got on about 30 seconds before they closed the doors.
Once in Toledo, we found our way into the walled city and only had to ask for directions twice to find our hostel.

A view of the Tagus River that runs by Toledo.

You can see one side of the wall near the trees.

On Friday, we set out early to make the most of our one day in the city. We walked around and took a lot of pictures from near the wall. The old buildings and medieval wall are stunning. We visited the Alcazar, which they have turned into a history museum.

The Castle of San Servando that you can see from the Alcazar. 

We then went in search of lunch, but it was too early for lunch (only about 12:30), so we spent time in the shops looking at the Damasque jewelry, swords, and ceramic tiles, all made in Toledo. We tried typical Toledo food for lunch-deer meat for me and an assortment of sauces for Tarah, then found our way to the El Greco Museum. At the museum, we were able to see some El Greco paintings, but found that a lot of his work was actually in the Cathedral, so we went there next. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left, so we only got to spend about an hour in the Cathedral, but the paintings were stunning! It was fine because we learned that there were even more of his paintings in El Prado, a giant art museum in Madrid.

One of El Greco's most famous paintings in the Cathedral depicting Jesus in red.