5/6/11 - Welcome to Toledo

Pics!

On Friday we were leaving Madrid and heading for Toledo. We again set our alarm for 7 am, although there was a little bit of curling up into a little ball and hiding under the covers on both of our parts. Eventually though we dragged ourselves out of bed and packed our things into our backpacks (somehow they seem to be getting harder to pack, in spite of the fact that we haven’t bought anything and have eaten our way through some of our stuff).


Out in the apartment we sampled the pastries we had bought and had “little coffee” - apparently only Americans are coffee crazy. Europe drinks espresso. I don’t think they Supersize either. We had croissants filled with chocolate, a sort of brownie-like thing that didn’t really taste like chocolate, and a flaky pastry dipped in chocolate. It was a theme.

We had meant to leave with Jose when he left for work at 8:15, but we didn’t quite make it. We could have been out about 5 minutes later, but once you’re late, you’re late, right? So we stuck around and booked a hostel in Cordoba and did some more research on Toledo. Right near the apartment was a store called Corte Ingles which opened at 10 and sold cameras, so at 9:35 I set out for it while Tricia looked at hostels in Seville. Googlemaps had said it would take 15 minutes, but it had me going around a park that I walked right through, so I had 20 minutes to wait. At my entrance there were already 3 cars waiting, and I could see more at the other entrances. They didn’t open the parking lot until 10 either.

By 10 the line of cars was stretched out down the street (I couldn’t take a picture - I broke my camera, remember?) and there was another woman waiting with me who had arrived on foot. A security guard was sitting inside the gate watching the clock, and at 2 til he finally let us in. I hurried to the door, but when I got inside I stopped dead in my tracks. The place was at least 7 stories tall! There were floors above me and below me, and they went on in all directions as far as the eye could see. I stopped a woman and asked for electronics, and she sent me down a floor. I headed for the televisions, and then asked for cameras - that woman sent me down two more floors. I ended up in a sea of perfume, and asked for directions once more at one of the booths - all the way to the end, and then turn left. Finally, cameras!

This transaction was fairly easy, as I’d done the research. I will translate this conversation into English for you:
I need a camera.
What kind?
Sony. The same as this one. (Hold up broken camera.)
Mmmm….this one is similar.
Is it 129 Euros? On the internet it said 129 Euros. I want the one that is 129 Euros.
Yes it is 129 Euros.
Okay, I want it.
Black or silver?
(Long pause.) Black

There was also a lot of Spanish that I didn’t catch, but that was the gist of it. I gave the lady my credit card and my license, and together we made sure it took the same battery and the same memory card, and then we put the broken camera in the box and the new camera with the old (charged) battery in my camera case, and I rushed out of the store, snapping pictures as I went.



Using the computer while
standing on the metro.



Back at the house, Tricia and I got our things together, left a thank-you note, locked up, and made our way to the bus station via the metro. Buses left every hour for Toledo, so we were soon on our way (after a lot of going up and down stairs looking for someone to sell us tickets and a denied credit card and then wandering around looking for the right platform - again on a different floor).

We arrived in Toledo at 2 and contemplated walking from the bus station to the hotel. It would only take a half hour! However, they didn’t have any maps at the bus station, and the shopkeeper we asked for directions pleaded with us to take a bus since we had our packs and it would be mostly uphill. Without a map we decided we should give in, and quickly realized that we would have a) gotten lost and b) never made it up those hills.

Doing laundry

We’d been unable to find a hostel in Toledo, so we stayed at a little hotel instead. We had a room to ourselves as well as our own bathroom complete with shower and bathtub. And bidet.

Some of the attractions were going to close at 5:30, so we went out to see how many we could get to in 4 hours. We started out in the Mesquita (if you’re ever in Toledo this is perfectly skippable, while the one in Cordoba is supposed to be one of the top sites to see in Spain and is free on Monday and Tuesday mornings). It is a former mosque from the 10^th century, and was built on the site of a Visigothic church. So, its history is interesting. There are a few foundation pieces preserved under glass, as well as a few rooms held up by columns with typical Muslim archways. The best part is a garden with a terrace that overlooks the Puerta del Sol. We spentt a lot of time taking pictures under the trees in the garden and of the city. This is where we learned that my new camera takes really, really easy panoramic photos. We also learned that it flips vertical pictures so they’re already the right direction when they’re uploaded onto a computer. This is a pain when you’re looking at the camera’s tiny screen, but is going to save tons of time when I finally get around to doing photos. The camera is growing on me a bit.

Next we walked down to the Puerta del Sol (Gate of the Sun). In Toledo the gate is still standing, and we walked beneath it on our way to the Museum Santa Cruz. As we passed underneath it, we noticed an innocuous little door standing open. Almost like something a worker would use to, say, light a torch on top of the stone gate. After some discussion, we decided to go for it. (We are foreigners after all - we can claim ignorance of the rules.) We tiptoed up the ridiculously tall stone stairs, and eventually found our way to a tiny little museum with a guard sitting at a desk. He didn’t say anything to us, so we found another staircase and continued our vertical journey. Suddenly, we came out on the roof of the gate. This was magnificent! We could see all around in every direction, and had it to ourselves! There was a ledge around the inside of the wall so we could climb up and see over the wall, and there was even a placard with a picture of the city labeling the various buildings that could be seen. If you’re in Toledo, don’t miss this. I highly recommend it.

When we’d finally had enough and climbed down, Tricia decided she hadn’t done enough rock climbing since leaving the US. She started up the side of a pile of rocks, and ended up about 12 feet off the ground. I snapped some pictures, and then came the part where she had to get down. It’s always easier going up! After laughing a bit and some heckling, I stood behind her and pointed out footholds and guided her feet to them - I don’t want to lose my travel companion to a broken leg!

Next up was the Museo Santa Cruz. This was a free museum, but it was huge and really nice inside. We started out in the courtyard, which was full of flowers and statues and stone sarcophaguses. There was a temporary exhibit on the second floor of painter Miguel Barnes, but Tricia and I thought he was strange and didn’t particularly understand his work. It was modern art once again. There was also a large exhibit on ceramics.

On the next floor, we found a small section of bones and artifacts from the Paleolithic period onward, followed by a large exhibit of religious paintings. We were starting to get a bit slap happy after three wings of Catholic art, so we decided to find a new floor. The final floor was devoted to one artist - Benjamin Palencia. At first his light happy pastel paintings were a nice change from all the dark paintings on the other floors, but his paintings soon turned dark and violent as well, so we decided to leave the Museo Santa Cruz. It is, however, worth a visit if you’re in Toledo.

We began to look for a place to eat. All the restaurants still had their Menu del Dias out, and since it was only 7:30, we thought they might still be serving “lunch”. We went into one restaurant/bar and asked whether we could still order off the day menu. Everyone there looked at us like we were crazy - they didn’t serve food at 7:30! Dinner didn’t start until 8! Okay….“so then when do you open in the morning?” At 11. That sounded far too early to me, so I probed further: “but when do you serve food tomorrow?” At 1. Apparently, you can get a beer at 11 am, but the kitchen will still be closed.

Since we couldn’t order from a day menu, and the night menus more than double in price, we settled for a ham and cheese pizza. Afterward, we went to McDonalds, and tested out their Wi-Fi before ordering anything. Once we were both connected, we bought a couple of yogurts with fruit of the “Euro” menu and headed upstairs to the dining area. I needed to call my bank through the computer because my credit card kept getting declined, but the lady couldn’t hear me so I headed for a quieter area - the bathrooms. It took quite a while to get it sorted out, and I got funny looks from women, men, and employees who wanted to clean the bathroom. So, it was another successful day. J