Toledo the tourist trap

Fleury says:
In Toledo (half hour train ride from Madrid) we stayed at a lovely little hotel overlooking this beautiful cathedral thanks to recommendation from Kez & Gaz. We went for a walk around Toledo & through the cathedral & although it was really pretty, after a few hours we were wondering what to do with ourselves. So we bought a bottle of vino & went back to our room & proceeded to get drunk while looking at the view from our room & solving the worlds problems. We had a great time.

Although it was really pretty, we found it a bit of a tourist trap, the only people that lived there were people that made a living from tourists & they didn´t really seem to like tourists which was a bit of a shame. Glad we went nonetheless as the history there was amazing but definitely a day trip or overnight at the most.

Rizzo says:
I´m constantly blown away with European history. The architecture, the meandering cobblestone roads that are barely wide enough to fit a car. But the most amazing thing is that Toledo, like similar cities throughout Europe, is still a living and breathing place. People continue to live in these centuries old buildings just as they have always done. And just how the hundreds of little bars, cafes and restaurants survive in this town is beyond me. But they manage somehow, mainly feeding off the tourist trade.

The one thing that struck me was that Toledo felt vibrant yet somehow soulless. It´s as if though the skeleton is there and the meat is now the tourist trade and not what once would have been a living, breathing place of culture. But still, we had a ball doing our thing and imagining what life would be like if we were Toledans.

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