Hi Everyone! Did ya miss me? Don’t worry your pretty little heads off because I am back.  Since I last posted I’ve travelled to three different cities. First stop was Toledo, Spain.

Toledo is a very beautiful city! It’s got that whole walled, medieval, on a hill, surrounded by a River (the Tajo) that was home to a variety of dynasties.  There are remnants of Romans, Visigoths, Moors, Christians and Jews.  Toledo was an imperial city for an incredibly long time.

Some of you may be wondering, “Why Toledo?” (I assume you didn’t know the reasons I just stated above).  Well, my dear readers there is a very easy and sweet answer to that.  This trip, which coincides with myself moving to a new country, again,  also is meant to mark my parents 30th wedding anniversary!

So my answer is:

Mum and Pater!

Their love story actually began in Toledo, Ohio! Mum was a bright young pharmacy student at the University of Toledo while Pater had transferred there to finish his electrical engineering degree after his stint in the Army.  They rather adorably met at Mum and her roommates house party.  The roommates boyfriend, who also studied electrical engineering, was instructed to invite other gentlemen.  Mum then proceeded to be a good host and introduced herself to a number of people who said they “came with Pat Reilly.” After this happened multiple times, she finally met the man himself.  They chatted and bonded over being tea drinkers in a world of coffee lovers. And the rest was history!

 

Those of you who know my parents will find nothing of this story to be a surprise. Mum is an excellent hostess, dad is great at bringing people together and we all drink tea.

 

Way to go you crazy kids!

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The Alcazar of Toledo

The Alcazar is a fortress built originally by the Moors when they ruled Toledo. It has been severely destroyed at least three different times, the last in the Spanish Civil War, and now it contains the Military History Museum of Spain.

It’s giant and is very well done. It only opened in 2010 and you can see a lot of great practices throughout.  Good lighting, great displays, easy to read info in Spanish and then English. We all enjoyed it but I have trouble when confronted with that much death and destruction. It’s a lot to handle.

They had some really cool audio-visual displays that make battles come to life via a 3-D map of the topography. It was really snazzy and I loved it.

Rating: 3/5

Pros: Very well done Museology- wise

Cons: It is a national museum of military history and as such was not able to discuss a lot about the bad side of the Wars of Spain.  I guess we were looking for a bit more from a post-colonial view-point or about the horrors Spain has gone through and that the army was a part of inflicting.  It also could be redundant labels, we read a few multiples phrased the exact same way.