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Published: October 25th 2006
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Madrid, Spain - Toledo, Spain - Madrid, Spain
Multiple people we met in Madrid, locals and tourists alike, told us we had to do the day trip to Toledo. "It's incredible" they said. Well, we were unsuccessful in getting cheap tickets to Barcelona for a couple of days* and found ourselves with an extra day in Madrid so decided to follow their advice. This was the worst weather day so far with lots of clouds and general haziness in the sky. The train to Toledo is a quick 30 minute ride from central Madrid. At the train station in Toledo, there is no info desk, no free map of town - instead there is a small souvenir shop doing business selling maps hand over fist for 2 Euro each. The lady in the shop will point out the sites on the map before taking your money. You can either take the public bus up the hill to town from the station or walk (pretty much straight up) for 20 minutes; we chose to walk.
When we got to the Plaza Zocodover, we looked for signs for the tram tour through town (an American in Madrid had told us about
Atoche Renfre
Train station with tropical gardens. it and the lady at the station confirmed it). After looking around and scratching our heads for a few minutes, we asked some non-English speaking ladies at the bus stop about it. They directed us across the square where we found a small shop down a narrow street which contained the tourist info desk. We inquired at the desk and were told, yes the tram leaves from across the square once an hour, but you must buy your tickets from the main cash register of this souvenir shop. Of course, the next tram leaving in 30 minutes was full so we had to wait 90 minutes.
So we walked to the Cathedral which supposedly rivals Notre Dame according to some people we had spoken to. It costs 6 Euros each to enter the Cathredral....and there are no guide pamphlets in any language besides Spanish. Even the guards taking tickets laughed and shrugged when we pointed this out to them. It is a pretty impressive display of architecture and art, but it's not as great as Notre Dame!
The tramride was incredibly cheesy, but did boast English narration which was a plus. We learned that construction on the Cathedral
Toledo River
The river loops around the city, carving a deep (several hundred foot canyon that protects the location from attack from 270 degrees. began in 1200 and the city wall was first built in 912. The main bridge over the river into the city has never successfully been breached by invaders. It is hard to grasp how old things are in Europe given that our own history began so relatively recently in the US; I say "our" but acknowledge that of course, Native American history goes back far before 1492!
On the tram we sat facing an American couple - you could tell by their matching sweatshirts and the fact that they were eating lunch from McDonalds. We cringe when we see these type of tourists. We cannot understand why you would come all the way to Toledo and then choose McDonalds for lunch when there are dozens of restaurants with fabulous local food all around you! It just doesn't make any sense to us. Our goal is to immerse ourselves in the culture of where we are. In fact, our best meal in Spain was eaten here in Toledo! We found a restaurant in town with outdoor seating and a wonderful menu. A plate of wonderful green olives was on the table, and the most delicious homebaked bread was included with
Old Toledo Gate
Apparently the wall here utlized the tombstones of early Muslim inhabitants of the city. Pretty harsh... our meal. J had an omelette (known as a "tortillia" here) for the first course, then meatballs with tomato sauce and thick potato frites for the main course. CM had a salad for the first course, and seafood paella for the second course. The meal included chocolate ice cream with whipped cream for dessert!
After lunch we were ready to go back to Madrid, but our tickets were for the 19:30 train. The helpful lady who we bought our tickets from in Madrid insisted we would need at least 8 hours to see Toledo. We checked the schedule and found there were also trains at 17:30 and 15:30. It was 15:05. We quickly walked to the main square and attempted to hail a cab to the train station. Only 1 came by in 10 minutes, and he was occupied. So we had another 2 hours in Toledo. We found some Roman ruins on the map and headed in that direction. The ruins are of an ampitheatre and now sit in a local park. The park was deserted, apparently we were the only tourists interested in the Roman ruins!
We arrived back at the station just after 17:00. We
waited in line at the ticket counter to see if we could exchange our tickets for the 17:30 train. The place was packed. The monitor said the 17:30 and 19:30 trains were sold out. So when we got to the front of the line and asked about "standby" for the 17:30, we were dismissed with an angry wave of the hand. We went out to the platform and got at the end of the line of passengers boarding the 17:30. We noted there were two other groups of people doing the same. We were told to stand to the side until the train was fully boarded. The ticket taker was scanning the tickets, so we're sure they knew exactly how many seats were available. The other groups were then waved onto the train. The conductor then told us - in Spanish - that there were no more seats and our only option was to stand on the train. We said fine and hopped aboard. There were several empty seats in the car, so we asked him if we could just sit there but he emphatically said no as those passengers could be in the bar car and could return at
any moment. Of course, we just sat down when he left the car and no one returned to claim the seats. Who is going to go back to their seat from the bar car on a 30 minute ride?
Overall we would not recommend Toledo. It could have been the weather, but we just weren't that impressed by it. In addition to the above, the entire city had garbage strewn around in the gutters and on the side of the road and smelled stongly of the nearby pastures. For a World Heritage Site, it seemed poorly taken care of by the local government.
*The 12th of October is Spanish National Day, AKA Columbus Day at home. We asked around to see if it would be worth staying in town for but were told "not really." Everything is closed. There is a parade but it's more of a "military parade" than a "Mickey Mouse" parade. So we kept to our original plan of leaving on the 11th.
We really wanted to go see Barcelona and Montserrat (and Mallorca and Bilbao and Seville...), but because of the holidays it was difficult to get a flight and place to stay
on short notice. We will definitely visit more of Spain in the future.
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Unka Jeff
non-member comment
Holy Toledo!
Toledo is one of my favorite cities in the world. It played a major role in the intellectual history of 'the west' by being the place that the great works of the ancient Greeks and Romans were translated back to European languages from the Arabic where they had been kept and respected during the 'Dark Ages' of Vatican oppression. The Toledo Cathedral is, in my humble opinion, the most wonderful in all of Europe. Good destination choice you guys. Have fun.