Wednesday in Toledo

Our second and last daytrip from Madrid, this time to Toledo (a little under an hour away). The man at the front desk of our hotel highly recommended that we take a bus tour since, being that we wouldn’t be able to see all of Toledo in one day alone. Our bus left just around the corner from our hotel at 9:15am. In a group of about 15 others, we visited the following sites:

 

-Catedral de Toledo

-La Iglesia de Santo Tome (home to famous Greco painting, “The Burial of Count Orgaz”)

-Old Jewish quarter with its narrow streets

-Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca

-Iglesia de San Juan de los Reyes

-Museo Victorio Macho (incredible panoramic views of the city on el Rio Tajo!) Here we also saw a short film about the history of Toledo.

 

Breaking for lunch, Mom, Bee, and I found a cute outdoor café just outside of the old part of the city. Bekah with her tortilla francesa (much like an omlette), Mom with her steak and fries, and me with a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich, we enjoyed a leisurely meal complete with cafes con leche at the end.

 

Meeting up with the group again, we visited a factory of Damasquinado, the famous handicraft of Toledo. It was really impressive to see how these gold and black plates/jewelry/etc. are made and to know they will never rust or decay. Finishing our tour with the most spectacular panoramic view from the top of a cliff, we made our way back to Madrid by 5:30pm.

After regrouping in the hotel, we headed back out again. We walked around a bit and window shopped, only stopping for dinner at a delicious Mexican Restaurant near La Plaza Mayor. At 8:30pm, we had the restaurant to ourselves, as the dinner crowd wouldn’t be showing up for another hour or so. Stuffed with nachos and guacamole, steak and chicken fajitas, and of course margaritas, we thought it only appropriate to also stop for ice cream at Pelazzo on Gran Via before returning to the hotel.

With no luck finding an English movie (or English channel of any kind) on the TV, we turned to watch my recently downloaded Itunes movie “Vicky Christina Barcelona.” If you haven’t seen this movie already, DON’T! The only redeeming quality of this ridiculously meaningless film for me was seeing places I had visited in Barcelona like Sagrada Familia and the Gaudi apartments. Our viewing quickly turned into a Mystery Science Theater reenactment.