Toledo

You know what they say don’t you…………………”better late than never!” I’ve only been back three and a half months but I did promise to tell you what I thought of my day trip to Toledo.😆 Then I’ll tell you about Paris and the marathon, and then I’ll have another trip to Spain to tell you about as I’m going on Friday for 9 days because I’m off work for a week. I have some exploring to do, and I need a little break, because summer term is oh so very busy in a school, and a little rest will just nicely revive me ready for the final push to the big summer holidays, when I shall depart the UK for a whole lot longer!

But first a little bit about this week’s diary. To say it’s been a sad week would be an understatement. I have time to tell you about Toledo because I’m having a very quiet, calm weekend in hiding because I need one. One where I can spontaneously cry when I want to and it really does not matter! You see the thing is, on Friday, 2 days ago, I lost a friend, a bestie who was very dear to me and I am absolutely heartbroken beyond words. She was one of my wing men from the ‘A’ team on my wedding photo, mum of Spencer the dog from my previous post and just generally a beautiful, courageous, kind, amazing lady the same age as myself. We knew this was imminent, hence my visit a couple of weeks ago, when she made the very brave decision to cease her treatment after over a decade of battling MND/ALS and also, for the past 18 months, cancer.

But even though you know it’s going to happen it’s tough all the same when you lose someone, and even tougher if you don’t know it’s going to happen. You feel for her family and you also feel that very strange sense of loss, bewilderment, loneliness, and overwhelming sadness yourself. So this weekend I have been in quiet spaces, doing positive things which makes me smile and seen only a couple of people who surround me with love and hugs. And for anyone that’s grieving that is important, to give yourself time to process the thoughts, to have a good cry, to be angry, to be sad, but also to be thankful. Because there were fantastic times too, before all this……….holidays to Greece together, having our children close together, lots of parties, lots of laughs, lots of love and lots of memories which no-one can take away.

So on Friday, the day it happened, all I wanted to do was be alone and cry, and it’s important to do that and let it all out. I’m unable to suppress my emotions so it does all have to come out. Shares in Kleenex tissues will have rocketed this weekend as I’ve got through boxes of them.😆 So I made a picnic for my dinner and and I went alone, up to one of my favourite spots 5 minutes away, the windmills, to watch the sunset, cry and reflect. There was only me there, hundreds of skylarks, complete silence apart from the birds, and it was lovely in a strange sort of way. I felt at peace with the world.

On Saturday I surrounded myself with my garden and flowers. An early morning coffee in the sunshine under my wisteria, which always makes me smile.

Then I planted my planters for summer, assembled my hanging basket and made stripes on my grass because that always cheers me up. 😂 But why do they make those environmentally friendly slug pellets bright blue? Aesthetically it really does mess with my head, I’d like dark brown pellets please.

Then I went to visit my Dad and that always cheers me up because being a true Yorkshireman he’s so funny. Always in his blue overall bottoms, when you ask him what he’s doing his response is always…..”Oh, I’m just pottering, getting out of your mother’s way!” 😆 Well on Saturday, he had a list of pottering jobs that Mum had given him but I caught him having a sneaky little nap on his deckchair in his garden! Well, when you are 85 you need regular breaks! Now, I’m daddy’s girl, like two peas in a pod and it became apparent to me on Saturday where my obsession with lawn stripes comes from, this is the man who has taught me everything I know about lawncare!😂I think his stripes might be straighter than mine and that actually looks like a little criss-cross pattern he’s been experimenting with. That’s one for me to try next week!

Then today I’ve ventured down the road for a lovely coffee and brunch, and a another little cry, with another lovely girlfriend. And then I’ve had a few hours of peace, quiet and calm this afternoon so I thought I’d try and recall a bit about Toledo, because memories of travels always cheer me up. That’s what life’s all about, not the material things but about making memories.

So, Toledo……………..very easy and cheap to get to on the high speed train……………36 minutes from Madrid Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes station, which is walkable from the City Centre (so no metro mishaps 😂). Toledo has a nice little station, very Arabic in style with swaying palm trees outside. If you did not know you were in a Spanish station you could be mistaken for thinking you were in Morocco.

From the station it’s an easy 15 minute walk, uphill, across the Alcantara bridge which spans the Tagus river, and through the gate in the old city walls.

Its quite a majestic looking city from the other side of the river, as it sits up high on top of the hill. You have to remember it was February when I was there so I am wrapped up like a snowman as it was cold, even by British standards!

Toledo is a UNESCO world heritage site and is often known as the ‘City of 3 Cultures’ – those being Christian, Muslim and Jewish. If you like history there is lots for you as it’s a City that everyone has had a turn at ruling!

You will keep walking uphill once you pass through the city walls and eventually come to a smaller Moorish style arch, in front of which stands a statue of Miguel de Cervantes clutching his book. If you don’t know who he is, he’s an Early Modern Spanish writer, author of Don Quixote and whom many regard as the greatest writer in the Spanish language. I’ve never read the book myself so I can’t give you my opinion on whether that is a worthy claim, it’s subjective I guess, like all these book and film reviews are. I’m the only one in our house who thought the recent Amy Winehouse film ‘Back to Black’ was fantastic, and yes I did cry, what a poor tortured soul she was. But I have yet to stay awake though a screening of any of the Star Wars films. 😂 I don’t really do far fetched make believe, but my two at 21 and 23 years old can still watch them over and over again.

Anyway, have yourself a selfie with Miguel, and keep going uphill through the archway and you emerge in the Plaza Major. It’s quite a plain, more modern square, but pleasant, so I sat for a while and had my breakfast and a coffee.

Even as I’m writing this I can’t tell you whether I preferred Segovia or Toledo if you only have time to visit one of them. Neither compare to Salamanca, which I preferred to both. Segovia has the Aqueduct and Alcazar, is much more compact, better from a foodie perspective, and has a friendlier feel to it. Toledo has a much better cathedral, that’s the star of the show in Toledo for me. Overall, I would say the buildings are nicer to look at than in Segovia, as is its setting on the river. It’s also easier to get to from central Madrid. But once you get there it’s much more spread out and does not have as friendly a feel as Segovia. So take your pick, it depends what you are going for because they are neck and neck equal for me.

I thought I’d wander through the streets for a while to look at some of the buildings and walk towards the Manchego cheese museum, yes………they have a museum for cheese………….and I love cheese, including Manchego. It has over one thousand five star reviews on Tripadvisor………………..so imagine my disappointment when I got there and it was closed for a holiday! It sounds fantastic though so I would say go, they do pairings with wine and it sounded just like my sort of thing.

I saw some lovely buildings whilst wandering around. Because Toledo is built on a hill, some of the streets are a bit undulating but I kept getting a glimpse of the very imposing cathedral spire down the alleyways.

Most of the buildings are of a golden stone, similar to Salamanca, and if you look at the carving on them the Muslim influence becomes clear with lots of intricate Moorish designs.

I was, however, still sulking about the closed cheese museum, so seeing as a bit of blue sky had made an appearance, before I went anywhere, I thought I’d cheer myself up with an ice cream.😆There’s an ice cream shop with a few outlets called Martonela and it’s good. Pistachio, Turron, with a wafer, chopped nuts and chocolate sauce put the smile back on my face and any cheese museum disappointment was soon overcome.

Onwards I marched, to the cathedral. This is the must visit whilst in Toledo – Saint Mary of Toledo is its official name. I think out of the four cities I visited on this trip to Spain, this was by far and away the best cathedral. It’s not quite up there with Burgos or Seville in my opinion, but I do think it has the edge over Salamanca cathedral, just because of its ostentatious bling inside! It’s bordering on being over the top, there’s just so much of it.

From the exterior it is absolutely beautiful. It’s really imposing and the bell tower and spire is really pretty. It also has a really ornate door covered in Camino shells.

Then you go inside and it is just a WOW moment. It has it all. Huge barrel vaulted ceilings; lots of gold; beautiful stained glass windows; possibly the most ornate choir stalls I have seen anywhere; carved red marble columns; the most amazing white marble and gold altarpiece.

It also has a beautifully frescoed ceiling, not on the same level as the Sistine Chapel but very beautiful all the same. The highlight for me was an altarpiece called El Transparente. It has a painted cupola with a window at the back which lets the shafts of light shine through and illuminate it, giving it a ‘heaven’ like appearance. Then around the perimeter are various carved figures which look like they are peering down at you from heaven. It it very ethereal.

There is also lots of very valuable artwork. Perhaps the greatest piece in there is by El Greco entitled ‘The Disrobing of Christ’. Not really my thing but if you are into religious art there are some must sees in here.

Toledo’s cathedral also has a very pretty cloister which should not be missed as it is really well tended. One corner of the cloister is also where they store Los Gigantes when not in use. These are giant figures on wheels that they parade through the streets as part of their festivals in Spain. So you can have a close up look at these. Some of them are downright creepy, and I think as a child I would have been absolutely terrified of them. I think it’s the eyes.

I’d seen the Muslim and Christian influences, time then for a little wander through the Jewish Quarter to the other side of town. This was a really pretty area with a number of synagogues and I ended up, after a long walk, at the other side of town at another gate in the city walls. This one is the Puerta del Cambron , previously called the Gate of the Jews. Just to the side of here you can get a good view from the top of the city walls down the River Tagus, very picturesque.

There are some lovely gardens and in general this is a much calmer, more peaceful part of town if you need a little sit down and a break. It just so happened that when I arrived for my sit down it coincided with the arrival of Toledo’s answer to a boy band! 😂 So there was an opportunity for a little sing and dance along …………….. very entertaining.

What else is Toledo famous for…………………..ah yes……………marzipan! But I mean proper marzipan, not the bright yellow stuff you buy in the supermarket in the UK, over processed with preservatives and almond essence. This is the authentic marzipan made quite simply with eggs, ground almonds and icing sugar, toasted brown on the top. Obviously, because it’s not full of flavourings and preservatives it does not have a long shelf life so you might have to eat it before you come home, which I did not find a problem. 😂

The most delicious looking marzipan was in a marzipan shop called Santo Tome, so I bought a small box from there, all nicely wrapped in pink paper and a ribbon. The marzipan comes in all different shapes, and some even have almond nuts and pine nuts on the top. For certain festivals and at Christmas they also make marzipan snakes and eels, which were on display, all curled up in their box with candied fruit adornments and intricately decorated with marzipan. I thought eating a full snake prior to departure back to the UK might be a bit greedy though, so I just settled for my small box!

Just one more place left to visit before my return to Madrid………………..the Alcazar. However, if you are hoping for it to be like Segovia Alcazar you’ll be disappointed. It’s imposing from the outside and visible for miles around…………………it is the huge four towered quadrangle you can see atop the hill as you approach Toledo. However, it is not fully accessible to the public and not maintained as an Alacazar museum. It mainly houses the army and military museum, which isn’t really my area of interest. But it is also home to the public library on the very top floor. In my guidebook it said that entrance to the library was free to anyone, and that there was a library café which had the most amazing views of the whole city. So off I trotted up the many steps (there is an elevator too) for my little caffeine fix and a lovely view. And the guidebook wasn’t wrong, the view over the city in all directions is amazing, worth the climb to the top floor for a coffee and a peek.

So that’s your whistle stop tour of Toledo. Glad I made the effort to come, for the cathedral, marzipan, ice cream and my moment of glory in the boy band………………………it was worth it. It is well deserving of a day trip from Madrid!

So next up, when I return from Spain, will be my verdict on Paris and marathons, I will make an effort not to leave it three and a half months like this one!