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Published: December 28th 2023
We decided to take a few days to get away from the boat and see a city in Spain that we have not been to before (and there are a lot of them yet to discover). We picked Toledo even though it would take 3 train rides to get there, but found that the connecting times would be short and make for an easy trip. Toledo is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, so we knew already that there would be plenty of history to absorb. We started off with a short bus ride to the train station in Cartagena. We know we can walk there as we did that the day we bought the tickets, but with the heat decided it was definitely worth the 2.40 euro total for both of us to ride and not be hot and bothered before even getting on the train! That worked well and we got to the train station in plenty of time to enjoy the air conditioning in the waiting room of the area where you buy the tickets. We now have found that the trains in Spain run on time (at least the 3 that we caught), are comfortable and
the train to Madrid which was the longer ride had a dining car where you could buy something to eat and take back to your seat. We are always pleased when we can use trains to travel on – such a pleasant way to move around a country.
We enjoyed the changing scenery as we traveled first to Murcia, then to Madrid and finally to Toledo. At times we passed through large agricultural areas filled with huge net houses, plenty of orchards of citrus fruit trees, while other fields had grapes covered with white bags to protect them, and fields full of sunflowers. We saw a “farm” of haybales which must have been for distribution and then hills covered in pine trees as well as a few other varieties. I definitely didn’t get the best of photos from the train (but as Bob said I keep trying anyway!), due to the speed as well as the very dirty windows! At least will put up a few to give you an idea of what we saw on our way. We were interested to see that when we made the connection at Murcia station, we had to go through
security screening complete with putting our bags on a belt like at an airport and they had Bob empty his pockets and be “wanded” while I was able to walk right through (he must look suspicious!). Luckily, it was a quick process as we only had 20 minutes to find our connecting train. The surprise was when we got to the Madrid train station as we left the platform where we arrived, went into the terminal and could not find even one board telling of the connecting trains. We couldn’t find any staff for a while, but finally near the exit we found a staff member that helped us. He looked our connection up and then told us we had to go down the escalator and ALL THE WAY DOWN to the VERY END, turn left and then ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE END again and we had 15 minutes to do it. We definitely picked up our pace (short of running) and got to the gate where there was a very long line of people waiting. Here they check your ticket before you go onto the platform rather than have someone on each train to check the tickets.
That process was happening but with so many people going to Toledo (we wondered then, was it a holiday or what was taking so many people there on a Wednesday afternoon?) it was backed up. We were still going through this process at the time the train was to leave, but fortunately they didn’t leave til all got on so we did leave a little late, but not by much and they made up the time. One extra plus with train travel is that you don’t have to arrive 2 hours early like you do at an airport!
Toledo is a medieval walled city that sits high on a hill (quite a distance from the train station) but our trusty google map told us we could catch a bus to the historic area where we were going to be staying. The only “mishap” on this trip was that a bee decided to sting Janice’s hand while waiting at the bus stop. Even after a couple of days it was still swollen and itched like crazy, but that was the extent of it, thankfully.
When we arrived at the main square within the walled city, we had to walk
about 4 minutes to our accommodations. Google map to the rescue again as this area is full of alleys that twist and turn, go up and down and they even threw in a couple of stairways for good measure. Glad our phone was charged enough to get us there. We arrived about 5pm so decided to settle in and then later went out to find something to eat and start our explorations of this medieval walled city. When we mentioned to some at the marina that we were headed to Toledo, they wondered if we were shopping for a sword or knife. Neither of us knew before that Toledo is famous since the 16
th C. for its Toledo steel which is durable, but flexible to use in the making of swords. We saw numerous store windows with them on display showing the handiwork of the craftspeople that produce them. Neither was an item on our list to buy, but they were interesting to see with the details incorporated into each of them. Another tidbit we learned from our research was that the painter, El Greco called Toledo home so we would be seeing some of his artwork among others while
visiting. The other famous name associated with Toledo is Don Quixote as his journey started in this city so figured we’d be seeing some references to him as we wandered the city. With just pulling this trip together very quickly, we were trying as best we could to do a little research on the area.
In reading up about Toledo we found that it has been known for centuries as the city that welcomed Christians, Jews and Arabs. Over the centuries it was home to the Romans, the Visigoths, and the Moors of North Africa. It also was the capital of Spain up until 1560 when it was moved by King Philip II to Madrid. One thing that becomes obvious very quickly is that you can see the influence of all of these within the architectural details here. The number of museums, churches and mosques provide plenty for you to discover. With it being a walled city, it is an easily walked city and had plenty to keep us busy for the 4 days we spent here. We know that some make just a day trip to Toledo from Madrid and feel that is enough, but we are very
glad that we gave ourselves more time to explore the wealth of history here. We also found it was a wonderful city during the day, but also the night explorations add its own splendor (without all the day trippers here). By the end of our time here we had visited an amazing number of churches, mosques and museums, but even with all this time we never did make it inside the Fortress that is quite the landmark here. The fortress is a fortified 16
th C. palace and houses the Military Museum, but as mentioned it didn’t make it on to our list of places that we visited over the time we were in Toledo.
With so many places that we visited I won’t go into too much detail, but give an overview which covers the places that we did make it to. Also, as you might have noticed, this blog is very late in being posted as our trip to Toledo was in August and I am currently sitting in upstate NY near the end of December! Decided it may be the best way to get this posted before we head back to Spain in January. Sorry about the
delay in posting this, but as they say, guess, better late than never!
1) The Toledo Cathedral was close to where we were staying so got there early in to have time to listen to the audio guide that was provided and see some of it before the crowds started to arrive later in the morning. This Gothic building, we see today started in 1226 and was completed in 1493. As with many other buildings it was built over the foundation of a mosque that was previously here. Some of the Moorish details are seen in the cloister area and the gallery. The Cathedral is a monumental structure with numerous chapels within it with spectacular sculptures, paintings and stained-glass windows. We did have a treat as while there a choir that was visiting the Cathedral stopped and sang giving us all a treat with their amazing voices.
2) Cristo de la Luz – This mosque was built in 999 AD during the Caliphate period. Two centuries later it was converted to a church with the addition of the rounded apse. There was an excellent audio guide that was well worth the extra 1 euro as it
provided a fountain of information about the building structure itself and the history of the changes that occurred. One interesting point that was mentioned was that when the apse was added, the floor was raised as they wanted to be sure it stood higher than the previous floor of the mosque. There are remains of frescos from when it was a church, but as some of the Arabic tradespeople were used for the construction of the apse, you can see that methods used showed the influence of their skills and style with the horseshoe shaped windows and the way the bricks were laid into decorative patterns. Arabs typically had gardens surrounding their mosque and there is still a lovely one there today to enjoy. The wall bordering the garden leads into one of the gates of the city, Puerta del Sol and we were able to get some wonderful views of the city from this spot. In 2006, remains of a Roman road were discovered and are now exposed to see the intertwining of history in this location. In one location you were able to see the mixture of Roman, Arabic and Christian influences. One of our favorite spots.
3) Iglesia de San Il de Fonso – This one was not one that we were planning on visiting, but as we were passing this on our way to another church we decided to stop. This was built by the Jesuits 1742 in the Baroque style and was a worthwhile one to see.
4) Iglesia del Salvador – This church also began as a mosque from the 9
th C. but became a Christian church in 1159. Within this Church you can see a pilaster carved with 4 scenes from the life of Christ from the time of the Visigoths. It is wonderful that these places keep on display some of the architectural details from the various historic periods.
5) Iglesia de Santo Tome – This where the famous El Greco painting, “The Burial of the Lord of Orgaz” was commissioned by the priest of the church in 1586 to commemorate the death of the Count due to his generous charity work. El Greco was a prolific painter and has many that are well known; however, this painting is said to be his most complex in meaning. As described in the brochure, “El
Greco was the master of contrasting the earthly with the heavenly. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has entered death to redeem humanity through glorious resurrection. This theological content is expressed through the audacious aesthetics, combining hyper-real light, intense colors, beautiful stylized forms, naturalness and the supernatural and astounding compositional flourishes”
6) The Royal College of Doncellas Nobles was started in order to educate young women of both limited resources as well as of nobility with a Christian and humanist education. It was started in 1551 which was definitely a radical idea for its time. It has survived as an institution of learning until 1988 with extensions made to the building over the years. In the early 1990’s the building was modified and is now used as a university residence, but fortunately it is open to the public to admire the architecture, art and learn more of the history of the college.
7) San Juan de los Reyes Monastery – This 15
th C. monastery is what they say is a Gothic-Flemish building with Romanesque elements and is easy to identify due to its ornate walls and pointed spires. There are two main galleries here
with one having a heavier Moorish influence in the shape of its windows. You get wonderful views of the inner courtyard from its two levels of the cloister. With so many of the buildings here, not only are the chapels impressive, but the floors and ceilings draw your attention as well.
8) Iglesia of San Roman - The Museum of the Visigoths is housed within this church built in the 13
th C of the Mudejar style. We learned more about the Visigoths here as well as viewed examples of their artwork.
As you can see from above, we did cover numerous churches, mosques and museums. Even though Toledo is compressed in size as a city, it offers much to its visitors as we did not get to all of the possible sights. We did decide one evening to hop onto a small tourist “train” that went out of the walled city and across the river so we could get a view of the hilltop city from a distance. Fortunately, we were able to get tickets for the late afternoon so we were able to view a wonderful sunset while at the viewing area across
the river. We enjoyed taking this short ride around as it gave you a better appreciation for the strategic location of the city, but even more showed us the immense side of the Fortress and the Cathedral. When in the town itself, they did not appear to be this large as you could not get a good feel for the size when walking next to them through the various narrow alleyways.
With Toledo being popular with tourists, we were pleased with the choices of restaurants as well. One day we saw an Indian restaurant with an open door so went in, but we were told they did not have a server so couldn’t serve lunch. At first, we were disappointed as Indian sounded good to us, but a few steps beyond we came across a restaurant called “Arabian Touch” so we stopped there instead. We were very pleased with the décor, the food and the service. In the end we were quite happy the Indian restaurant didn’t work out as we will remember it as one of our best meals in Toledo.
One other memorable encounter occurred in a restaurant. The night we had taken the train around
the city, we were dropped off near the main square in town. We figured we would find a place to eat before heading back to our apartment. It was late and we were somewhat tired from all the walking we did that day so went to one of the first places we came across. We found out it was a popular place and they only had seating at the bar. We decided to take it rather than take time to find another place. The stools were not going to be the most comfortable, but knew it would be OK. Shortly after we ordered our dinner, a couple sitting at a table next to the bar asked if we wanted to join them at their table. We weren’t going to, but they said it would be more comfortable and were very inviting. It was a good choice to sit with them as they were a very lovely couple that live in Toledo. The husband spoke a little more English than his wife, but even with the language barrier, we had a very pleasant conversation with them. At the end of the meal, they even invited us to their home for a
Don Quixote Started His Route in Toledo
therefore a statute to him is a tourist attractioncoffee, but as it was very late, we declined. As always, we will add this to another of the many wonderful interactions we have had with local people throughout our travels.
I know that I have brushed over lots of details about the various places we visited, but if you don’t get anything else out of this blog, the point was that we truly enjoyed our stay in Toledo and definitely recommend that you give it a few days as it has so much to offer.
Our trip back to Cartagena went as smoothly as our arrival and seemed to go much quicker especially with knowing about the transfer within the Madrid train station. It was wonderful to see some of the Spanish countryside and visit and learn a little more history with our visit to Toledo – a highly recommended destination!
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