Day 14: Toledo

We got up relatively early on Easter Sunday.  The city was pretty empty.  There was supposed to be a procession today, but nothing much seemed to be going on.

 We went to the Alcazar which houses Spain's military museum.  It was free on Sundays! The Alcazar was destroyed during fighting in the civil war and has been rebuilt since.  During the addition of the new building they found remains of the original Alcazar, which they incorporated into the original design .

The museum has a vast collection of arms, armour and other military objects.  We enjoyed the horse armour.

One of the temporary exhibits was of miniatures depicting various Spanish military figures. 

We think Uncle Bill would have liked this, but we think he is a far superior painter.  The point of view of the museum is interesting with titles like: The Conquest of America and the Defeat of Nelson. After the museum we made the pilgrimage to Mariano Zambrano, a sword maker.  He showed us around where he hand makes the swords.  He makes about 100 a year.

Alan and Bruce had a great time at the store. Alan eventually bought a sword based on El Cid's Coloda. 

Blacksmiths sure are big and burly just like in the stories.  We went for a walk across the first century Roman bridge and along the gorge.  It was neat because as you walked along the pathway you couldn't tell there was a city above you. We took a ferry back and forth across the river, feed some ducks and fish and went back into town as it started to rain.