We got up and took the metro to the Atocha train station for an early departure to Toledo. We were back at the train station we had left at the beginning of our trip. Full circle - a reminder that we'd been traveling for a while and our trip was nearing its end. Even though we had been there before, we were turned around and had to ask directions to the AVE train platform. We were early enough to grab a coffee at the train station before departure.
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| Toledo rail station |
We arrived in the train station in Toledo and grabbed a bus up the hill to the center of the historic section. Even though it was still early, it was already stiflingly hot. We were somewhat confused about where we were when the bus dropped us off but we stumbled around and found the central information center and got a map. We headed off to the cathedral first. The cathedral museum had an impressive collection of art - El Grecos, Titians, Van Dykes, Goyas and more. Neil liked the perspective of the ceiling art in the museum. It looked look you were really looking at the ceiling scene from below. There was also an interesting alabaster and marble sculpture called "El Transparente" which was showcased by natural light from a hole cut into the ceiling for this purpose. The hole was decorated to look like the entrance to heaven. The side chapels were very large.
After the cathedral, we stopped at a bar with some tables set outside for some cool drinks and early lunch. The waiter looked dismayed that we were there, which turned out to be because they weren't really ready to be serving lunch. We ordered some bottled water, which the waiter brought along with some delicious Serrano ham tapas appetizers.
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| Tower of San Tome |
We visited San Tome nearby which housed "The Burial of Count Orgaz", by El Greco. This was my mother's favorite painting. She had the poster on the wall of her bedroom. I was interested in seeing it in person. Here (and everywhere) Toledo was swarming with huge tour groups of all kinds. I was a little overwhelmed by the crowds at every stop of interest. Now that it is July, schools are out everywhere and summer vacation is in full swing. We are caught in the tourist crush and have to live with it. One thing I do not understand is the point of having so many churches so close to a giant cathedral.
Next on our wanderings was a temple, converted to a monastery, finally to a church. It is now restored to serve as the Sephardic Museum, telling the story of Jews in Spain. I found it depressing. It did not address what happened to the Jews on Spain. It was more an examination as if the Jews were some kind of exotic zoo animal. Very odd!
Once back out on the streets we were really hot and hungry. We searched for a restaurant and ended up at a nice (air conditioned) sit down place called Adolpho's. It was a gourmet type menu where, once again, we were unsure of what we were ordering. Unfortunately, there were no English speakers among the staff. We ended up ordering carpaccio, something we thought was thinly sliced meat. We were partly right. It was thinly sliced raw venison. The other thing we ordered was torta de cabra y oveja, which turned out to be a big ball of melted cheese. The venison wasn't bad. The cheese was quite heavy.
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| Festive street |
After lunch, we walked around in the heat. Our energy was gone and our heart wasn't in it. We waked back across the city to the main gate and found a place to sit at the Cafe and Te in Zodocover square at about 3 pm. We nursed a smoothie and ice cream. The weather was rapidly changing. It clouded up, but it was still oppressively hot. I was somewhat revived. Sitting at our table, I reflected that, throughout the day, i had noticed many people in religious attire out and about. I saw many nuns as well as a priest smoking outside a church talking on his cel phone. I had also noticed many buildings and balconies strung with garlands of flowers. The streets were covered with shade tarps, as I had noticed in other cities. I struck up a conversation with an English speaker, an air traffic controller, who told me that a some of my observations were explained by the fact that a religious festival had just ended in Toledo.
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| Alcantara Bridge |
We left the city by the main gate and walked down the hill, crossing the river on the Alcantara Bridge, and arrived at the rail station. The rail station is, itself, a very distinctive mudejar structure. The train we caught was one of the last going back to Madrid. It had about ten cars, as opposed to the three or four cars of the train we had arrived on this morning. There were many people waiting. We waited about an hour, sitting on a bench outside along the track where the train was waiting for boarding. When we finally boarded, we were thrilled by the wonderful air-conditioning. The train left right on schedule. In fact, every bus train and airplane during our entire trip has been right on time. The longest wait we have had for the Metro in the cities has been four minutes, with waiting time of two minutes the norm.
The hotel was bliss after the train / Metro back. I immediately took a bath while Neil checked online with his ipod. We went out and ate at a different place in the Plaza Major at around 10 pm. We decided that, based on our limited experience, the places in the Plaza were too tourist oriented to serve really quality food. We still really do not understand some of the cultural ethic here, like why do waiters bother at all if they are not getting tips? The Plaza and surrounds were more crowded tonight than last night, probably because it is Friday. It even sprinkled a little tonight, but not enough to notice.
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