Toledo

Not to be confused with the fairly useless city in Northern Ohio, Toledo is considered to be the premier example when it comes to the mixing of cultures in Spain. In the year 711, the Moors came to Spain to try to conquer it. After this, the religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity were able to live together in peace, until the Reconquista which drove the Muslims and Jews out of Spain. However, the remnants of this melting pot still linger in Toledo. We saw very clear examples of Moorish influence when it comes to architecture, and there are still synagogues and mosques to this day. Another thing that Toledo is famous for is its crafting of medieval weapons, specifically swords and daggers. There are countless shops in the more tourist area of Toledo promoting the handcrafted steel and workmanship of their items. A few even sell full suits of armor, albeit for over 2000(!) euros. I actually bought a switch-dagger sort of thing as my souvenir, but unfortunately I lost it within hours. When my sister studied abroad in Spain, she spent most of her time in Toledo and she told me to make sure that I got to see the Cathedral of Toledo. Fortunately our group did get to see it, and it was completely worthwhile. As somebody who was raised Catholic, a lot of the religious imagery and intricacies of the artwork really resounded with me, even though the sheer vastness of the Cathedral made it impossible to see everything. Several of my friends and I agreed that we could probably have spent an entire day just in the Cathedral. Other than the Cathedral, we spent a lot of time wandering around (our tour guide was a bit incompetent) but because of that we got a good feel for a lot of different parts of the city, not just the “sights”. Overall, I really enjoyed getting to experience a very important city in Spain.

Here's a pretty cool picture of one of the streets of Toledo. Very cramped!