Brittany’s View of Toledo

We asked for our students to send us their favorite pictures from their adventure through Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, and Morocco, and here we go.

This first one is from Brittany Hebeda.  Brittany took it near the end of our trip just outside of the city of Toledo.  We had just spent the afternoon wandering through the weaving, winding streets of the city (which you can see from Brittany’s pic) exploring Toledo Cathedral and the Alcazar (fortress).  While we walked around the city, our guide kept referring to the great artist, El Greco.  We actually got to see some of his work in a small museum alongside the Cathedral, but the one painting that was in all our minds the whole day was his famous work – View of Toledo.

We looked at that painting numerous times before our trip, and couldn’t wait to see Toledo for ourselves.  We walked across the Roman Bridge that’s shown in the painting (just to the left of dead center), and we toured both the Alcazar and the Cathedral that El Greco painted.

El Greco loved Toledo.  Even though he was born in Greece, he considered himself Spanish, and Toledo was his home.  That said, he did take some liberties when he painted View of Toledo.  His painting doesn’t have everything in the exact spot you’d find it in real life, but the result is breath taking.

Brittany’s View of Toledo.

After our tour of the city, the bus drove us to a spot pretty close to where El Greco may have gotten his famous view.  Brittany snapped a pic of her view of Toledo, and she said, “I think its really cool how we saw panoramic views of almost all the towns we visited, but this one you could acually see the Alcazar and the Cathedral very clearly. Even though it took awhile to get up to, it was definetly worth it!”

We agree Brittany.  A great view and a great picture.

Anyone else who wants to send us their favorite picture from a TAP trip, we’d be happy to publish it.