Madrid: Day 3

Well, technically we weren't in Madrid for most of the day, but still. We left this morning at around 9:30 for Toledo. Actually, we had breakfast first and then caught the metro to the train station where we would then go to Toledo. We thought we had planned plenty of time for all that, but apparently we were mistaken and ended up running through the train station frantically trying to find the right platform. We got on the train exactly 2 minutes before it left. Very close call.

So, once we got to Toledo we wandered around the city for a while trying to find our way around. In the center of the city is the cathedral, so we decided to start there. It took three centuries to build it and it was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but this is what the outside looks like:

Also inside the cathedral was basically a mini museum with a bunch of paintings by El Greco (who lived there for a good portion of time), Van Dyck, Titian, etc. It was great to look at them in such an intimate setting. They also had some robes of the past cardinals of Toledo on display. Some of them were as old as the 1400s.

After our tour through the cathedral, we got lunch at a nearby cafe. Greg decided to try a dish we keep seeing everywhere...I'm not sure what it's called, but here's a picture:

The fact that it had rabbit meat in it kind of scared me off, but the rice was delicious, especially with the lemon juice. After lunch, we wandered around all the awesome narrow streets of the city with some delicious ice cream. At about this point in the day, almost everything shut down. I've heard of this happening in Spain and Italy, but we hadn't seen it in Madrid, so we didn't really think much of it. But seriously, everything was pretty much dead. It was crazy, but very cool to walk through the empty streets.

Unfortunately, this meant that most of the museums and such were closed as well. But we had a great time walking around. It's one of our favorite things to do in new cities anyways. Oh, and notice the blue sky peeping out there? Well apparently there was a 70% chance of rain at about that time. We came prepared. But there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Psh. Stupid weather channel.

Eventually we made it up to the top of the city and here is a picture of the amazing view:

After walking around for a few hours we went to relax in a park for a bit before heading out to catch the train. It was so hot all day that we were very tired by the time we finally left. See?

Oh, and for those of you who are dying to know (probably just me), while there was a decent chance I would get my LSAT score today, it hasn't happened so far. Oh well, more waiting for me. At least I get to tour Europe to keep my mind off of it. :)