Toledo, Spain

A quick train trip took us to the UNESCO World Heritage listed town of Toledo today. Toledo is a fortified town with a many layered history which includes the Romans, the Visygoths, the Muslims, the Jewish and the Christian people. It was founded by the Romans in 192 B.C. on the site of an old Carpathian settlement. A major point in history was in 589 when the king changed his religion from Arianism to Catholicism, also improving the relationships between the various groups in the area. The Muslims arrived in 711 and the Christian reconquest happened in 1085. With the inclusion of the Jewish people Toledo was what we would call multicultural, and according to our guide, they lived in amicable coexistance.

Our bus ticket up from the station to the old town included a sight-seeing drive around the city to a viewing point and also a walking tour with entries into several important sites in the history of Toledo. An excellent combination ticket which still allowed us plenty of free time.

There is quite a lot of evidence of the Roman fortifications and bridges across the Tajo river.

From the viewing point you get a great view of the old town and can easily identify the two main structures, the Cathedral and the Alcazar. The latter is a square building and the massive cathedral has the spires.

Once in the old town area the ambience surrounds you; picturesque narrow streets, cobbled roads, quirky buildings with snatches of evidence of the Muslim influence in the architecture, and best of all, the tourist paraphernalia is set within a historic context.

The Cathedral is massive and built upon the total area space of the previous mosque. This accounts for some of its unique features such as the double apse. Our entry included a self guiding electronic device which really brought the tour to life, and guaranteed that we saw the most important features.

It is impossible to show the grandeur of this building; the size, the detail, the clever design, the pure beauty.

Like most churches in Europe there were some works by the great masters. The painting above, The Disrobing of Christ (1579) is by El Greco, and the one below is a Madonna and Child by Goya. 

The walking tour showed once again the great variety of people you meet when you travel.Today we had a family from Lithuania with us. The guide is talking about the fortified doors and door knockers that are high enough to easily reach when you are riding your horse!

The Church of San Ildefonso, the patron saint of Toledo.

The Church of Sto Tomé was a perfect example of historic recycling. The colums have been reused, several from the Roman era and the one below from the Visygoths. This church has an archealogical dig site below it with evidence of burial chambers and water cisterns. Again recycling of building materials is evident.

The Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca is a great example of how buildings have had many uses. It has been a Christian church (a small patch of frescoed wall is preserved), a Synagogue as is evident by the white walls and inset tiles on the floor with Jewish symbols, it has been a refuge for homeless people and also a stable for horses in the time of Napoleon. Now it is preserved as a museum example in the Jewish Quarter.

The last stop was the Franciscan Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes. Its chapel is popular for weddings but the cloister is the masterpiece of the monastery with Gothic arches, fantastical beasts in stone carvings and gargoyles, and the intact garden.

The Alcazar is actually a rebuilt structure that has suffered many damages over the centuries. It is now the library and a war and torture museum ... old style torture! 

There is lots more to see in Toledo and it would warrant an extended visit. For us, it was a very enlightening and entertaining day trip from Madrid.

Madrid - Spanish Tapas Madrid walking and tasting tour

This tapas tasting tour was a birthday present for Kelly, and we were very excited. 'Meet in Placa del Sol, under the statue of King Carlos III and look for a red umbrella' said the instruction email. How hard can that be? Well, with the Gay Pride celebrations on in Madrid this week, and Sol covered in stalls and thousands of people, it proved to be quite a challenge. Eventually our guide Mario found us and the five other participants.

Mario gave us a potted history of Spain and Madrid and a good geography of the city before we set off for our first experience. On the way we were shown the Tio Pepe neon sign. Like the Skipping Girl in Melbourne, the people of Madrid did not want to lose their landmark so it was re-located to Placa del Sol.

At inClan Brutal Bar we experienced gazpacho, croquettes, octopus and basil injected buratta mozzarella. After a lesson on Spanish wines we had a glass of a 2013 roija crianza red. All delicious!

Next stop was a family business Enrique Tomas that specialises in Iberian hams. A feature of Iberian ham is that in the third year the pigs are fed on acorns. We had lots of ham and other pork products, cheeses and bread which we enjoyed with Cava, the Spanish wine which can no longer be called champagne.  We were all amazed to see the price of a full leg.

At Meson de la Tortilla we drank sangria and ate egg and potato tortilla.

  

We all agreed that we had no space for a dessert of churros and chocolate so Mario took us to the best ice-cream shop in Madrid. What a super night out talking food and travel with people from U.S.A, Canada, Brazil and Spain.

If you are ever in Madrid, be sure to book a Spanish Tapas Tour with Mario or Luis.

Madrid - Pomp and Ceremony, a Cathedral and a Palace

First stop today was the Palacio Real or Royal Palace where we had got lucky again. The Changing of the Guard with full pomp and ceremony is only held on nine occasions throughout the year and today was one of those. Arriving early we secured a spot at the fence which gave us a perfect view to the courtyard of the palace and a  rear view from the approach between the cathedral and the palace. Great uniforms and a variety of horse breeds, a huge marching band which did formation work, soldiers who marched in formation patterns and also performed manoeuvres with their rifles and bayonets, and some solid work horses pulling military carts. As the commentary was in Spanish I cannot do more than present some photos for you to look at. 

Having stood in the sun for more than two hours, we headed for the cool of the Cathedral of the Almudena next door. This church is celebrating its 25th anniversary which is a strange thing for Europe where everything is many hundreds of years old. Of course, it does have older foundations. 

This was one case of reviews being not always to be believed. I had read ' attractive on the outside but nothing to see inside.'  What a good thing I decided to see for myself! It is certainly different but in keeping with its age we felt that it gave a contemporary view of Christianity, and also gave modern religious artists an opportunity to present their work. Surprisingly, we found it most satisfying.

The next church where we hoped to see frescoes by Goya was closed so we headed back to a shady spot we'd  seen and tried a local favourite - calamari in a roll.

Rested, fed and watered, we went back to the a Royal Palace to tour the treasures on show. This palace has well over 1000 rooms and is only used on special occasions now. The king lives elsewhere. The decoration of the rooms is stunning but the thing that won us was the amazing collection of huge chandeliers. Photos were not permitted in most areas but I did get two chandeliers to include in this post.

Back to our apartment for a short rest before we went out for a tapas tour. That is the subject of the next blog post.