Toledo (mostly)

Last night we had a funny experience for dinner after arriving in Madrid.  Joan picked out a nice place right around the corner from our hotel.  It was a Michelin star restaurant, but it had a bar where you could order tapas rather than a full meal.  That sounded perfect, so the hotel made us a reservation.  When we arrived and they seated us on the patio with a view, we figured out quickly that we were in the regular restaurant where the food was very fancy and very expensive.  We debated splitting menu items to get smaller portions, but that was not allowed. The bar area was totally booked, so we could not eat there. If we wanted, we could go to a restaurant with no view on the second floor but where they serve the same food.  We decided to do that, and ended up in a strange place for dinner.  It apparently is primarily a lunch spot for workers finishing their day, because by the end of our meal we were the only people there at 10pm, when most dinner restaurants are just getting going.  But the food was great and quite reasonably priced; we got an assortment of very tasty and unusual small dishes.

Today we had a full day trip to Toledo, about an hour's drive away from Madrid.  Our guide met our bus at the entrance gate to the city and took us first to a parador with a view of all Toledo.  It became an important city because it has a "natural moat", being on a hill surrounded on three sides by a river. 

We started our city tour in the Jewish quarter.  Of course, again, there haven't been Jews here since 1492.  I find the whole Jewish focus a bit of a sham myself, made for appealing to tourists.  That being said, we are the tourists being targeted, and it was interesting to see the two synagogues.  The first one did not look like a synagogue at all, and there were no remnants of the Jews.  

The second one, however, did have lots of Hebrew text on the walls.  Both had been converted to churches and then later restored.  But there are no Jews today in Toledo, and very few in Spain overall.

In the nearby shops we saw a lovely craft technique of laying gold or silver threat onto steel.  They use this technique to make all sorts of things from decorations to jewelry to plates ... and, of course, lots of Jewish stars and Christian crosses.  Toledo is billed as a religious center where Judaism, Christianity and Islam all came together.  We also saw some lovely pottery and tile work.

The specialty food item here is marzipan, apparently started by nuns. We saw marzipan in all shapes and sizes, including a giant Don Quixote that is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.  

The building style has interested me.  They have a technique of alternating stones with bricks in a specific way that I've not seen elsewhere, but it's all over town.

We stopped in a small church to see a famous painting by El Greco, who is something of a local hero because he lived much of his life here.

After lunch (I demanded lunch this time), we went to visit the cathedral.  This one is the biggest (or was that Sevilla's or Granada's?) in Spain (or was it Europe? Or the Iberian peninsula?) for the Catholics (or was it the Christians?).  Anyway, it was very impressive.  I continue to be awestruck at  how these people built such enormous buildings before modern power tools.  We also saw a room full of El Greco's here.

 

We headed back to Madrid where we are resting up for a guide-led tapas evening.

Donna