A Taste of Toledo

Monday, July 19th, 2010

We got up this morning around 8 o’clock so that we could make our way to the train station by 9 o’clock or so for our 9:20 a.m. train to Toledo. We enjoyed a chat with an American family who was in Spain for their eldest daughter to attend a language course in Salamanca, and were staying in Madrid for a few days before heading home and were day tripping down to Toledo for the day just as we were. We arrived in Toledo at approximately 11 o’clock, and enjoyed some sandwiches we had brought with us at the beautiful Toledo train station for our morning snack before catching the public bus into town and to the main plaza.

After a brief stop in the plaza to make a plan of attack, we were off. Our first stop was the Alcazar, however it was unfortunately closed, as it Monday today, and many museums, etc. are often closed on Mondays in Europe, so we could only admire it from the exterior. After a quick photo opportunity at the Alcazar, we began to make our way through the narrow winding maze of streets in Toledo to the Cathedral of Toledo. We did have a detour however, when we spotted a Templar Exhibition, this of course was something Tm could not pass up, so we toured the exhibition and learned all about the Templar Knights and their significance in Spain, and presence in Toldeo. After the exhibition I bet we went in every sword shop we came across. From these experiences Tim deducted that he wants to one, be a Templar Knight for Halloween, and two, make a sword (since I wouldn’t let him buy one). Eventually, several souvenir shops later we arrived at the Cathedral of Toledo. We toured the inside of the massive cathedral, including an art gallery, containing numerous paintings by El Grecco, who was from Toledo. Inside the Cathedral we met a man and a woman from Dallas, one just starting their journey and one just finishing and had a chat about travels, etc. From the Cathedral of Toledo we made our way down to the Iglesia de Santo Tome, which is famous primarily for the painting in its entrance which contains one of El Grecco’s best pieces of work. From here we walked down to see one of several Synagoges in Toledo, again running into the pair from Dallas, but again it was unfortunately closed today, as was the Casa de Greco, a museum containing many works by El Greco, but this was okay by us as we had already seen numerous El Greco paintings today and had seen several in the museum in Madrid yesterday as well. So we continued on to the Synagoge de Santa Maria La Blanca. The interior structure of the building itself was beautiful, but it was a bit odd as it was simply filled with drawings, sketching, and paintings of a Christian nature, and there was a nun inside selling the works, there wasn’t any information in English on the Synagoge, so it is unclear to us if perhaps it had been converted to a church or was no longer in use and was owned by a church, or something to that effect perhaps. Next, we continued down the street to the San Juan de los Reyes monastery. This was one of our favorite stops in Toledo. The monastery’s exterior, as well as interior courtyard/cloister, was ridden with detailed carvings, its staircases lit with beautiful chandeliers, and it was obvious why its church is such a popular site for wedding ceremonies, as we learned listening in on a nearby English tour. After touring the monastery we simply walked the picturesque streets of Toledo, slowly making our way back to its main square where we enjoyed a leisurely, but overly expensive, meal on the main plaza.

After our lunch we caught the Toledo Tourist Bus, per Tim’s mom’s suggestion, to take us on a ring around the city. From the bus we could see the various bridges/gates to the once completely walled city. We also stopped for a moment at a fantastic viewing spot to take photos of the city in its entirety, before continuing on around and back into the heart of the city. The entire trip took just shy of an hour. Once off the bus we took a taxi from the main square back to the train station where we caught a 5:30 p.m. train back to Madrid, oddly enough we were seated on the train right in from of the pair we had met in the Cathedral from Dallas. It is funny how on these trips you often will see the same people throughout the day at different venues, particularly in these smaller towns.

Once back in Madrid we went back to our hotel to have a bit of a rest, as we were very tired from exploring Toledo for a full day. After our rest we set out to a pizza place near our hotel and enjoyed a late dinner (as usual in Spain) before heading back to the hotel and to bed. Tomorrow we will see more of the sights in Madrid, it will be our last day in Spain.