A Musical Surprise

The cliché title for this post would be "Holy Toledo!" but I decided to resist. The bus rolled on into Toledo after a quick breakfast. I napped a bit on the bus until just after our tour of Toledo began upon the bus. We stopped at the Mirador Del Valle and looked northward toward the stunning city.

A northward view of the historical city Toledo over the Río Tajo at the Mirador del Valle.

Senior members of the choir. Special thanks to Alexandra Shworak for this photo.

The tour continued over the Puente de San Martin (St. Martin's Bridge) and up through the streets. We passed the Toledo Time Capsule and then climbed the streets to La Iglesia de Santo Tomé (Church of St. Thomas). Inside the lower level of the church, during a mass which occurred above us, we got to see the famous oil on canvas work "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" in the chapel. This work larger than life; every larger-than-life work of art seen on this tour has really been spectacular. It's astonishing to take in.

Today's tour begins by crossing St. Martin's Bridge!

Climbing up the hilly streets of stone, a look back at the bridge shows off the impressive qualities of the Río Tajo.

This map of the Iberian Peninsula i.e. Portugal + Spain is represented by Arabic symbols, recalling the influence of the Arabic presence in Spain hundreds of years ago.

Passing time by the Toledo Time Capsule!

Quickly, we headed to the Convento del Espiritu Santo service at Padres Carmelitas. Those in attendance loved our musicality so much that the choir performed 3 encores selected from our typical concert program. Our day has already covered so much ground, but there's more! We've been promised a surprise at a cathedral a fair distance away, but the surprise is apparently a "gift" to the tour guide.

The entrance to Padres Carmelitas.

The altar of Padres Carmelitas.

The choir continued to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, a crossroads of City Hall and the absolutely remarkable Saint Mary's Cathedral, whose full name is "Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada de Toledo." This church had a superbly vast interior with several chambers showing religious artwork, hosting graves of archbishops, and more.

The vast interior of the incomparable St. Mary's Cathedral.

The ceiling of the sacristy, created in just under a year by Luca Giordano.

The gold-leaf retable above the main altar cannot be described in just one sentence.

The final surprise was indeed a gift to our tour guide. Our guide had heard us sing beautifully, but only at the service i.e. not a full concert. Our surprise was the chance to sing in this cathedral; we set upon the steps and sang My Sheperd will supply my need (Virgil Thomson) and O salutaris Hostia (Ērik Ešenvalds). Our first song drew multiple tourist groups to listen and admire us. The experience is one to never forget.

The ruins of St. Paul's Monastery.

After these musical events during our tour, we were brought to the city center in order to have lunch. We said farewell to our tour guide and I got a second chance to try ordering food in Spanish; I made a few mistakes but it felt nice to try. A delicious hamburger with fried egg set hunger away long enough for me to buy a memorable set of wooden figures: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. (Our second half of the concert program opens with songs about these famous characters.) En route to the bus to Madrid, we passed the ruins of the Convento de San Pablo, which was left unused in 1407.

The site of our second concert: St. Michael's Basilica in Madrid.

We were quickly off to Madrid, and then to our concert at Basilica Pontificia de San Miguel. This concert was remarkable, although personally difficult due to some exhaustion. There was so much singing today, but the warm welcome of our Spanish audience made the night's finale worthwhile. Our post-concert time was spent wandering the nearby market before returning to the hotel for dinner and an incredibly restless night. Our venture to the wintry north will be worth the lack of sleep!