Holy Toledo! (Love this place)
We had an action-packed first day in Madrid. We saw just about everything there was to see in Madrid and we loved every second. We did that because we wanted to get out of the city and do a day trip. Our destination: Toledo. This was the seat of Spanish power for thousands of years. Because of its location on top of a hill and surrounded by water on most sides, it was easily defendable. Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived here in harmony throughout the Middle Ages. It's just a really cool place.
We left the hostel decently early and grabbed pastries from La Mallorquina again. We decided to walk to the train station instead of taking the subway. We were kind of subway-ed out and the weather was nice. Plus we wanted to stop at some kind of supermarket and get some water. We were able to find a grocery store and get a few snacks.
Using Google Maps, we knew that a train leaves for Toldeo every hour at:15 past the hour. We did not plan out our morning well enough and we accidentally got to the train station at 10:15am so we just missed the train. I was annoyed but it took us a few minutes to figure out the train ticket machines so even if we had gotten there 5 minutes early or something, we still would have missed it. We waited for the 11:15 train in the lobby.
The train ride was short (30 mins on a fast train) and very easy. Our seats were nice and the train was quiet. When you arrive in Toldeo, you get to their cool train station. It's got the Muslim/Christian mix of decorations that is very nice and emblematic of Toledo. There're a couple of options for getting to the main part of the city (the station is in the new part of town). You can take a taxi, take a bus, or walk. We chose the walking option. It's an easy 25-minute walk into town. They help you out by having a huge set of escalators to get you from the ground floor up to the top of the hill where the old part of town is located.
No matter how you get into town, you arrive at the main square, Troacdover Square. It's got a kind of weird triangle shape. Actually, the King who moved the capital of Spain from Toledo to Madrid in 1600 moved so that he could build the town he wanted (square-shaped squares) and not deal with what already existed. There's a McDonalds (which we used for bathrooms) and a confectionary shop (Toledo is known for its marzipan candies). This is the hub of town for taxis and buses. I can imagine on a spring or summer day, this place is very busy. In winter, it was pretty quiet.
Using our trusty Rick Steves Spain book, we decided to go on a walk from one end of town to the other. There are numerous old lanes and beautiful buildings everywhere. The shops are all small and it's fun to just wander through some side streets for a bit. Thanks to our winter trip, we honestly felt like we had corners of the city all to ourselves.
We followed the roads to the main Cathedral in Toledo. We bought tickets and get a free audioguide. A church of some kind has been on this spot since around 700. A guy was praying to Mary and she delivered a sacred cloak to him. Ever since then, they've had a church. This one was built in the 1300s and refurbished many times. The most famous aspect of this church is the main altar area. It has a SPECTACULAR GOLD background behind the altar. It's just crazy. There's also a beautifully carved choir section with individual carvings for every single seat in the upper and lower parts of the choir. The back of the altar area has an incredible painting and sculpture area that actually draws in natural sunlight. It's a great Cathedral and it's no wonder Madrid has been jealous of it (Madrid finally got a Cathedral in 1990).
By this time, we needed some lunch. Toledo is known for a few dishes but mostly for a pork stew called ???!!!???. We did some Google searching and eventually found a restaurant that sounded like it fit the bill. We decided to split the pork stew and steak. The pork stew was sooooo good. Smoky, paprika with the most tender pork ever. Lacey said it's super similar to goulash in Budapest but not as soupy. The steak was fine but incredibly salty (the pork stew was the clear winner). We were the only English speakers at the restaurant which is kind of always our goal in another country so that was fun too. We love being surrounded by locals.
We continued our walk from the Cathedral past some more old alleys and streets to the other end of the old town which ends at another church famous for having paintings by El Greco (the painter we saw at the Prado). We did not go inside.
At this point, we were not sure what to do. Our train didn't leave for quite some time. We waited for a bus to get back to our starting point but it didn't come for a little bit and we got bored. So we decided to walk out of the old city and around the city walls back to the general area of the train station.
On the way walking, I read that a person could get a taxi cab to drive them around the other side of the river to get beautiful shots of Toledo from afar. Not wanting to pass up such a fun opportunity, we approached a line of cabs. On the dash of the cab, there was a picture saying "15 euros panoramic views". We said, "we want that." LOL. It ended up being really great. The cab driver was super nice and listened to American classic rock the whole time. He talked to us and took pictures of us at each viewpoint. Really good decision and a really nice person.
He dropped us off back at the original square we started. We tooled around for a couple more minutes and then walked back to the train station.
Toledo was really great even though we were only there for about 4 hours. Our guidebook suggested sleeping there to have the opportunity to see the town without tourists but because we went in offseason, we didn't need that. We really didn't see that many all day and the taxi driver was a true highlight.
We took the train back to Madrid and then the subway back to our hostel. One thing that I haven't mentioned about the hostel is that Lacey and I had to share one long pillow when we slept. It ended up not being a problem at all but it was funny when we walked in and were like "uh oh".
For dinner, we tried to go to a cool place right by the taco place from the day before but it was closed. We ate dinner at an Argentian restaurant instead. For about 13 euros each we got a drink, bread, an empanada, salad or fries, and then chicken or steak, and dessert. Good deal! I got steak again (it was fine but wish I would have gotten something else) and Lacey got chicken (tasted good but had a weird soft consistency from grilling). The meal was pretty good and satisfied our needs.
This was our last night in Spain. I was honestly a little sad. For all it's warts in Barcelona, the country is really great and has so many things to see. We wish it had been a little warmer (it would only be warm for like 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon) but we did see plenty of sunshine. The food was really interesting and we enjoyed doing the "tapas" thing a few different times. We particularly enjoyed their eating schedule of eating really late and getting up late haha. Every single city we were in had the most amazing pedestrian walking streets, that's the one thing I'll remember most. It was so easy to walk and explore and see everything.
We were on to our next stop the next day, an island in the Mediterranean Sea called Malta.
The train ride was short (30 mins on a fast train) and very easy. Our seats were nice and the train was quiet. When you arrive in Toldeo, you get to their cool train station. It's got the Muslim/Christian mix of decorations that is very nice and emblematic of Toledo. There're a couple of options for getting to the main part of the city (the station is in the new part of town). You can take a taxi, take a bus, or walk. We chose the walking option. It's an easy 25-minute walk into town. They help you out by having a huge set of escalators to get you from the ground floor up to the top of the hill where the old part of town is located.
No matter how you get into town, you arrive at the main square, Troacdover Square. It's got a kind of weird triangle shape. Actually, the King who moved the capital of Spain from Toledo to Madrid in 1600 moved so that he could build the town he wanted (square-shaped squares) and not deal with what already existed. There's a McDonalds (which we used for bathrooms) and a confectionary shop (Toledo is known for its marzipan candies). This is the hub of town for taxis and buses. I can imagine on a spring or summer day, this place is very busy. In winter, it was pretty quiet.
We followed the roads to the main Cathedral in Toledo. We bought tickets and get a free audioguide. A church of some kind has been on this spot since around 700. A guy was praying to Mary and she delivered a sacred cloak to him. Ever since then, they've had a church. This one was built in the 1300s and refurbished many times. The most famous aspect of this church is the main altar area. It has a SPECTACULAR GOLD background behind the altar. It's just crazy. There's also a beautifully carved choir section with individual carvings for every single seat in the upper and lower parts of the choir. The back of the altar area has an incredible painting and sculpture area that actually draws in natural sunlight. It's a great Cathedral and it's no wonder Madrid has been jealous of it (Madrid finally got a Cathedral in 1990).
We continued our walk from the Cathedral past some more old alleys and streets to the other end of the old town which ends at another church famous for having paintings by El Greco (the painter we saw at the Prado). We did not go inside.
At this point, we were not sure what to do. Our train didn't leave for quite some time. We waited for a bus to get back to our starting point but it didn't come for a little bit and we got bored. So we decided to walk out of the old city and around the city walls back to the general area of the train station.
On the way walking, I read that a person could get a taxi cab to drive them around the other side of the river to get beautiful shots of Toledo from afar. Not wanting to pass up such a fun opportunity, we approached a line of cabs. On the dash of the cab, there was a picture saying "15 euros panoramic views". We said, "we want that." LOL. It ended up being really great. The cab driver was super nice and listened to American classic rock the whole time. He talked to us and took pictures of us at each viewpoint. Really good decision and a really nice person.
Toledo was really great even though we were only there for about 4 hours. Our guidebook suggested sleeping there to have the opportunity to see the town without tourists but because we went in offseason, we didn't need that. We really didn't see that many all day and the taxi driver was a true highlight.
For dinner, we tried to go to a cool place right by the taco place from the day before but it was closed. We ate dinner at an Argentian restaurant instead. For about 13 euros each we got a drink, bread, an empanada, salad or fries, and then chicken or steak, and dessert. Good deal! I got steak again (it was fine but wish I would have gotten something else) and Lacey got chicken (tasted good but had a weird soft consistency from grilling). The meal was pretty good and satisfied our needs.
We were on to our next stop the next day, an island in the Mediterranean Sea called Malta.
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