Day 17 - Day 19
 We are in our 6th city, Toledo! From the Toledo, Spain train station in the town of Toledo, it demonstrated the history and culture of Spain! Toledo was a place where I noticed the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian influences blend seamlessly. Toledo is known for its handcrafted sword and steel making, which dates back to Roman times. This was the first city we had experienced where we saw Islamic and Jewish culture infused in architecture. At our first meeting spot at the Mirador del Valle to sketch the Toledo skyline, I automatically grasped the outline of the significant structures, such as the Cathedral of Toledo and the Alcazar of Toledo, all with a cohesive, warm building material.
The next day, we visited the Mezquita del Cristo de La Luz. I noticed that this was the first mosque we visited in Spain during the trip. The number of layers of the different patterns and the alignment of the brick demonstrated the depth of the envelope of the building. There were many lobed arches, and the number of layers overlapped each other. When sketching out the 9 domes in the mosque, I noticed that the proportionality and craftsmanship were not symmetrical. Then, we went to the Cathedral of Toledo and noticed the rib vault construction. Closer to El Transparente, there were sexpartite and quadripartite vaults. The Transparente altar showed so much dynamism with the colorful frescoes and the hand-carved stone sculptures. The ceiling of the Transparente demonstrated a different kind of dome vaulting construction.

Lastly, we went to Sinagoga de Santa Maria Blanca, consisting of an arcade of horseshoe arches with octagonal columns in the prayer hall with Moorish-style stucco capitals. The prayer room was so much white with Islamic craftsmanship for a Jewish community. Analyzing all these synagogues shows the different scales of worship and praying spaces for the Jewish or Islamic culture compared to the grandeur of Catholic cathedrals. It's very fascinating to see how scale plays a part in culture's interpretation and relationship with God. The Toledo cathedral, with its grandeur scale, and these synagogues, with a smaller and more intimate scale in their places of worship, communicate two different interpretations of God.