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Published: March 25th 2009
Cathedral in Toledo
This is the main entrance to the cathedral in ToledoToledo - On Monday we took a short train ride, (30 minutes), to the small town of Toledo which is south of Madrid. Upon arriving at the train station we took the bus to the city center. While it is just less than 1 mile away, it is all uphill. This is a good recommendation if you plan to visit - take the bus or bring along your oxygen.
Toledo originally was a walled city and is located on top of a small hill surrounded on three sides by the Rio Tajo river. The two main sites in Toledo are the cathedral and the Alcazar. The first thing we did is visit the cathedral which is amazing. It took over two centuries to build the cathedral between 1226 and 1493. Situated on one of the highest hills in Toledo the cathedral is one of the largest buildings in town. The detailed artwork and craftsmanship inside the church is unbelievable.
After the tour of the cathedral we attempted to find the Alcazar and got lost in the narrow winding streets. We finally got back to the main plaza and found a tourist information office, there we learned the Alcazar is
Sad Puppy
Since we missed our own dogs we had to take a picture of this lonely sole. closed for refurbishing. So we did the next best thing and found a pastry shop and snacked on a sweet. It was too early for a beer so we took a walk to see the river and took a few pictures. Some of the streets in Toledo are so narrow Jim can reach out with both arms and touch the walls on both sides. Even so there are small cars and trucks that somehow navigate through the city, although we did notice that most of the cars no longer have side mirrors and some of those that do are duct taped. There were a few times we heard the sound of a vehicle coming from around the bend and had to jump into a doorway to escape having our feet run over. These roads are VERY narrow and sidewalks do not exist. They have a tiny little garbage truck that comes by and collects the garbage. In some cases, the road is so narrow there isn't any room for the garbage to go by the curb. The driver of the garbage truck honks the horn and the people come out of the building with a small grocery size bag that
Zocadar Plaza in Toledo
The main plaza in Toledo where we had lunch. gets deposited into the garbage truck. We wonder if they come by everyday.
We had to catch our train back to Madrid at 6:00 PM so we decided to have a late lunch back at the main plaza before catching a bus back to the train station. We asked the waiter for a salad to start with but he said there was no salad. Not sure if vegetables are expensive in Spain but most of the meals we have had are meat, potatoes, rice, or fish. Once in awhile we can find a salad but it always comes with some kind of protein, not just lettuce and tomatoes, it must be a law in Spain.
Once we got back to Madrid we decided to stay close to the apartment and had a snack at a tapas bar about a block away. Once again we ran into Russ and Cathy, the couple from Canada, and shared stories of our trip. The only problem we had was the three German guys sitting next to us while we were eating were chain smokers which made it hard to enjoy our meal. At one point Lisa moved to another table just to
Toledo Street
This is one of the typical streets in central Toledo. Believe it or not there are small cars that travel down these streets. Good thing Jim got out of the way, otherwise the car would not have survived get away from the smoke. The waiter must of felt sorry for her so he offered an after dinner drink for us on the house. He said it was a local liqueur made in Spain called Pacharan. It is made from a base of distilled spirit with an anise flavor and macerated with sloe berries which grow in Spain. It is served over ice and was very tasty, kind of sweet with a slight anise finish. Hopefully we can find it once we get home.
Seville - We made train reservations once we returned from Toledo for first class seats on the train to Seville. The trip takes two and one half hours but we were served breakfast on the train and the meal was very good. Nothing like what we were served on the airplane. We checked the weather reports and were quite shocked to see rain when we arrived in Seville. Since rain was not predicted, we did not bring our umbrella. We took a taxi to the central part of Seville close to the cathedral. Since the rain started to come down quite hard at the beginning of our day, Jim decided to buy an umbrella
The Tomb of Christopher Columbus
Parts of Chris are in the box the four guys are holding up. from a news stand for 6 Euros. We were about ten steps away when he opened it and the handle fell apart. You get what you pay for but at least it helped to keep us somewhat dry. It was also entertaining to Lisa when the umbrella would drop down on Jim's head.
Apparently there is some competition between the cathedral in Seville, Saint Peter's in Rome, and Saint Paul's in London. If measuring by square footage St. Peter's is the largest but if measuring by the amount of space inside the Cathedral, Seville is the largest in volume so to speak taking height into consideration. They even display a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records to prove they are the largest cathedral even though the tourist books indicate it is the third largest.
A major attraction inside the cathedral is the tomb of some of the remains of Christopher Columbus. Again there is some discrepancy as his remains have been relocated many times. Either way it was interesting to see his tomb. The other main attraction is climbing to the top of La Giralda, the tower that is part of the church. To get to
La Giraldi Tower
We climbed to the top of the tower for a spectactular view of Seville. the top of the tower you have to walk up a series of ramps instead of steps. It was built this way so that two horsemen can pass going up and down the tower. They must have been small horses and men. We walked up all 34 ramps to reach the top at 321 feet above Seville. The view from the top of the tower was amazing and we wished the sun was shining for a better view.
Across from the cathedral is the Alcazar which means royal palace. It was built by Pedro the Cruel in the 14th century as a royal residence. It is still used today when King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are in town. So far this was the most impressive site we have seen. The building is simple yet complex with many rooms built in Moorish style with intricate tiles and lots of color. The gardens of the Alcazar were most impressive with lots of orange trees in bloom, fountains, reflecting ponds, and acres of greenery and flowers. We even spotted a male peacock perched on top of one of the walls of the garden. Because it was raining we did not get
Seville - Alcazar
One of the many courtyards of the Alcazar. to visit all the gardens but from what we were able to see it was very beautiful and well worth the visit. We could imagine spending hours here on a nice day.
We then went to Barrio Santa Cruz. At one time this was a ghetto but today it is the most colorful district of Seville. The narrow streets are like all the others we have seen so far but the balconies are usually filled with colorful potted plants with flowing flowers. There are also orange trees everywhere you look.
After enjoying an afternoon treat of ice cream, we headed to Plaza de Espana. The grounds are quite large but unfortunately the place is really run down. There are ceramic banisters along the waterway that are broken and they don't even bother putting up a barricade. Obviously lawsuits are not the norm here like they are back home. The building is currently a government office and is a half-moon shape. Set into the curved wall are alcoves focusing on the characteristics of Spain's 50 provinces depicted in tile murals. Unfortunately, they are in the process of being refurbished. However the construction wall to keep people out did show
Gardens of the Alcazar
Even though it was raining the gardens were beautiful. what the alcoves will look like when the renovation is complete. We walked up to the second level and could see some of the work they were doing. It will look nice when they complete the renovation.
We enjoyed a nice relaxing ride home on the train. It's the only time, other than sleeping, that we are not walking. Tomorrow is our last day in Madrid and we have a few museums we still want to see. We will stick around Madrid and then we will be off to Barcelona. More to come....
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Pete
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Too Early for Beer?
Too Early for Beer? Since when? Remember that it's always later in China!