Trip to Toledo with Bippy and Gramps by Zander

Trip to Toledo with Bippy and Gramps by Zander

Sorry no pictures, Bippy and Gramps have them couldn't get access to them when I published

Bippy and Gramps took us on site seeing trips near Granada, while they stayed with us. The previous trips with Bippy and Gramps were a blast. Two weeks ago, we went to a Marriott resort on the Spanish Riviera for 2 days. I have never done that with my parents. It sounds nice and it was. But on the second day, it rained. We also went to downtown Granada last week end. There is a really fancy cathedral in the center of Granda. In the cathedral there is so much gold leafing on the walls and ceiling that your eyes start to hurt. The problem was that it was really big, so there was 3 blinding hours to finish the cathedral off. On the alter, the priest over did the decorations and there wasn't a inch where there wasn't some gold or a statue. Traveling with Bippy and Gramps was a different experience from traveling with my parents. We didn't see all the sights as quick as we can, but saw a few things really well. On this trip, we went to Toledo for 2 days.

When we went to Toledo, Bippy booked a really nice hotel for us. To be precise, a cheap four star hotel. It was called the Parador. There was a spectacular view.
We could see the whole old city. When we ate dinner at a really nice restaurant, I had steak, because it was the first chance I got to eat steak. Spain is not known for there beef steaks, but this was really good. I enjoyed the dinner with the view. The town was right across from us. There was a picture perfect river in the gorge in between the Parador and the the town. We could see the whole town. The great cathedral flood lighted, looking like a classic gothic cathedral. The palace of Toledo stood out because of how big and tall it was. Eating dinner at the Parador was a marvelous experienced.

We weren't the only ones at the hotel. It was practically over run by Japanese tourists. While we were eating dinner, they were non stop taking pictures with a wide range of cameras.They had the big lensed Canons, all the way to i Pads and iPhones. The Japanese usually travelled in groups with a tour guide. The restaurant servers didn't look so happy, because they had to serve on all of them tourists. I was surprised that they had time to take photos, because the food was so good. The picture to bite of food ratio was about 2 to 1. I couldn't see how they could take so many pictures, because I was to busy stuffing my mouth.

When I couldn't eat any more, we went to the rooms to "go to bed". Which means, watch TV until we got told to stop. I shared a room with Bippy and Gramps but spent most of my time in the other room with my sisters watching TV. I knew that I had to go to bed, because we had to walk around Toledo the next day.

After some decent shut eye, we got up and had a really good buffet breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice and chocolate donuts with bacon( interesting combination, doesn't sit well in my stomach). We got some directions to go into town. Driving with Gramps is different then driving with my dad. Gramps is much calmer and we didn't take many scenic routes. When we found parking with only 1 detour. A world record in my book!!! We got out and started walking.

The main attraction in Toledo is the cathedral, so that was our first stop. The cathedral doesn't look big from the front, but it is pretty deceiving. The cathedral is really big. There is a monastery connected to the side and some really cool stained glass windows. My grandma couldn't wait for the robing room. It is a room filled with all the outfits for the bishop. For me, it was the anticlimax. I would rather spent a hour at an art museum, then see that room again. Bippy was so exited she could stay there all day, if we didn't drag her away. She kept on commenting about how many beads there were and how hard to would be to sew it. I could care less that this robe had gold thread and beads all over it!!!!!!! So when we got out of there, we saw the rest of the cathedral. The most amazing part of the cathedral with all the gold and sculptures was where around the alter
was and the choir sat during service. The funniest thing was, the people in the choir had small seats that when they rested on them, they looked like they were standing. I thought that this church was over decorated and with all the gold that they put in the church, they could feed people instead. But at least when the pilgrims stayed in Toledo, they gave them somewhere to sleep. While we saw all the paintings in the church, Bippy told us history about them. She must have a lot of extra time on her hands because she had something to say about almost every panting, and there are a lot of painting in the church. They had mother mary with a crap load of baby's about, and 10 paintings of Jesus and monks being crucified. When we finished the tour de paintings, we moved on to the monastery.

In the monastery, there was a room that had the plans for all the famous cathedrals in Europe, so you could compare them. My grandparents were all over it and made us all look at it. The reason was that we have been doing a course on gothic cathedrals, so it would be " educational". The problems with travailing with girls is that they liked to take a long time looking at everything and " soak it in". My gramps and I spent most of the time waiting for them to finish up. So 3 long hours later.... We made our way out of the cathedral. The fresh air felt so good and I felt like I had accomplished an amazing feat on seeing the cathedral with my grandma.

Toledo was a center for commercial and trade over 1000 years ago, so naturally it has a pretty big old town. What I really like about it is that Toledo is known for its swords. They make them really well, and in an area where there is some really good steel. So since it was known for it's swords, there are tons of shops selling them to tourists. I think that the swords are cool, but they are really big and really heavy. They have everything from daggers to broad swords. All the shops have the same variety of swords. So how do they expect to sell their products? I thought that if the buyers had any sense, they wouldn't by anything as big and heavy as a sword because most of them have a long plane ride home and good luck getting a sword on an airplane.

One of the things that I noticed about Toledo is that there are not any modern buildings. All the building look old and the same. Gramps said that it was to make the city look old. How would the city look if there was a bright pink house, everyone wouldn't like to see that, and it would look really odd. Plus nobody comes to a historic city like Toledo to see a nice pink house ( except Sarah) when they have traveled half way around the world ( like so many of the Japanese tourists )and paid a lot. The Japanese tourist want to see a classic old (cute) town with really nice building, cathedral, and cute shops (selling stuff that nobody needs but they all want).

In Toledo, there is a really famous painter, El Greco. So we had to see his museum. I was not excited, because we were going with Bippy. It would take a really long time and she knew a lot about El Greco. I was prepared for a lecture. It was also one of her favorite painters, so that would mean longer lectures. I quickly found out how to avoid the lectures. You stay really far ahead, so she can't see you. I spent most of the time with Gramps, because he had the same mind set as me. The museum was El Greco's house. We got to see where he live and painted. I thought that his paintings looked like normal paintings for his time, lots of portraits of dukes and bishops. What I noticed was all the portraits of the famous people have a big battle behind them, and are holdings weapons. He made it look as if they were part of the fight( and that they're tough), but they really aren't. So with the sword shops, the El Greco museum, the old town, and some pretty impressive history, it makes for a really good town to be a tourist in.

Seeing Toledo Bippy and Gramps style was a cool. One of my favorite parts of the trips was eating at the restraint and the view. Traveling with Bippy and gramps was a real change. It was usually much calmer and not rushed. My dad is like, we have 2 hours to see the town get to work!!! After Toledo, we had to go to Madrid to meet up my parents ( sadly). So we got into Madrid with out any trouble, but finding our hotel was a different story. We tried about 10 times and ended up on the wrong side of the highway or in the middle of nowhere. Gramps was swelling up like a blowfish. so he finely gave up and dropped off the car and we got a cab.

I was thinking that my dad would never give up, no mater how mad he got. So we dropped Mia, Kayley, and Bippy off at the air port, after taking a big pile of school books from Kayley the collector. She always brings school stuff so that she can do homework. We are on vacation so it's impossible. I think that she thinks that she has the self restraint to do her homework, but when there is a TV and homework, she choses the TV. So we got the cab and drove to the hotel. Gramps was a little ticked off there wasn't a pen in the hotel. He needed to give us some phone numbers so that if there was a problem. He was worried that since it was only Sarah and I, what would happen if there was any problems like if mom and dad's plane was late (thank god). So with no pens, he went all boy scout on us and wrote the numbers on the a glass surface with soap. When he had finished, I found a pen in my bag. We were saved, but we couldn't get the soap off the glass. After 3 hours of watching TV, my parents showed up. I didn't know if I was happy to see my parents or sad to say bye to my grandparents. After the 2 days in Toledo, I wished that we could stay longer.

W