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Published: September 11th 2007
Today we explore the ‘Real Spain’, or so the Spanish tour guide keeps telling us. The plan is to jump back in the bus (bugger) and do a day trip to Toledo, the old capital of Spain. Then we spend the afternoon shopping in Madrid and kicking back at the hotel pool.
The day started out as planned, and after a quick drive through Madrid we headed to Toledo. Toledo was the capital of Spain since Roman times up until around the seventeenth century when the capital was moved to Madrid by the Hapsburg Emperor. The town hasn’t experienced many changes for the last couple of centuries due to the restrictive landscape and the focus of developments being in the new capital at Madrid (about an hour’s drive away). This lack of development has meant that most of Toledo still looks how it would have hundreds of years ago. Even a lot of buildings built by the Romans and the Moors who ruled Spain during the middle ages still survive.
The historical value placed in Toledo was backed by the Spanish government who pay 60% of all private building refurbishments (provided they retain the original exterior design). The city
still retains a Roman bridge and two complete sets of city walls, as well as the usual historic buildings and churches etc.
When we first pulled up to Toledo we parked at a look out that gave a view of the city - check out the photo! The city is a winding maze of restrictive streets with small shops. The main craft of Toledo is steel work, in particular swords and jewellery inlaid with gold. Every second shop contains numerous swords and plate armour.
After a guided walking tour of the city we were free to explore. Spain is definitely a lot cheaper than the rest of Europe we have visited so far. Unfortunately, Chelle didn’t manage to find anything to appease her shopping addiction - I guess we will have to wait for a more expensive city ;-)
After Toledo, we headed back to Madrid for some light shopping. Chelle was pissed when we quickly realised that most of the small shops that we passed on the morning drive through town were closed for a siesta. Being a Saturday, there was also little hope for them opening up until the late afternoon. We bought a book
for Chelle to read, and then headed to the Hotel for some internet work and a Siesta of our own.
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