Holy Toledo

TOLEDO TRAIN STATION


GROCER IN TOLEDO

We started off the day at Cafe Gijon, one of Madrid's more famous cafes where the literary set used to hang out. Our waiter was very friendly and chatted with us about the sights and customs of Madrid. Brad sampled torrija, a pastry that is only served during Lent and Easter. It's made from stale bread that is soaked in either wine or milk. It is dipped in batter and fried, flavored with cinnamon and sweetened with honey or syrup. I think Brad had the one soaked in wine -- it had a really strange flavor to it. He liked it a lot, but I wasn't crazy about it. I sampled a tortel -- a ring-shaped pastry stuffed with marzipan. We were planning to do a day trip from Madrid but could not decide on Toledo or Segovia. Our waiter convinced us to go to Toledo.

There was much confusion surrounding our ticket purchase at Atocha station. We had hoped we could just buy the tickets from a machine, but you can only do that for commuter tickets in the greater Madrid area. For destinations further away you must purchase them from a ticket vendor. The lines were really long and we got worried as our train left in less than half an hour. Finally, I caught on to an announcement in Spanish and managed to be first to jump in line at a window for Toledo-only tickets.

The scenery outside of Madrid was a bit monotonous. The landscape looked very dry. A dusty brown and beige were the dominant colors. Now and then we passed a grove of olive trees, notable for their silver-green leaves. The only spark of color were the lovely pale pink blossoms of an occasional almond tree in bloom.

After about an hour the train stopped at a station called Aldogar. We saw a lot of people getting off. We thought, "hmmmm. popular place this. must look it up in t he guide books." As it turned out, everyone needed to disembark at Aldogar to catch a bus to Toledo. The bus ride took about 20-30 minutes and when we arrived at Toledo train station, a handsome building in the Moorish architectural style. We soon realized why we had to ride the bus into town. The tracks at the station had been completely torn out for renovation. More confusion ensued as we sorted out our return ticket.

A 20-minute walk brought us to a Moorish gate into the city of Toledo. The sun was shining and the day was warming up considerably by now. Toledo was built atop a hill and the alcazar (Moorish fortress) dominates the town from a distance. We walked up many steep narrow streets and were amazed at the cars that managed to navigate the streets as wel. Unlike Madrid there were many medieval buildings made of stone. The streets were not laid out in a logical manner but seemed to twist and turn every which way. We decided to seek out an Arab tea house but were confounded many times as we tried to follow our map of the city. It was fun, nonetheless, wandering through the city. The narrow streets would suddenly open up onto a large plaza alive with activity. I popped into a bakery and purchased some delicious almond wafers. Eventually we found the tea house but, to our disappointment, it was closed. We wandered some more and found the cathedral. By this time we were very tired and hungry so we opted to have lunch before touring the cathedral. We selected a restaurant that had tables set up in a small plaza. We ordered raciones -- a larger version of tapas. We had asparagus wrapped in ham, patatas bravas (baked potato wedges served with a spicy tomato sauce and sour cream -- delicious!) and a lamb's lettuce salad with parmesan and walnuts. I was glad to finally be eating something green.

Toledo cathedral was immense and incredibly ornate. There are several El Greco paintings there, not surprising as he lived in Toledo. I thought the interior looked in remarkably good shape considering the age of the structure. We didn't have much time to browse in the cathedral as our bus out of Toledo was leaving soon. We high-tailed it over to the station and got there in good time. By then the sun was really hot and we were both drowsy on the bus ride to Aldogar station where we hopped on the train back to Madrid. We headed back to the room to rest up before venturing out again for dinner.

Dinner that was tapas. True tapas, as we had had such a filling lunch. First stop was a place called Casa Labra, one of the more popular tapas bars. They also have a sit-down restaurant, but we stayed in the bar. There were two counters in the bar -- one for ordering drinks, another for ordering food. There was a blackboard menu with a list of three tapas, several sandwiches and raciones. There were no tables only counters with a ledge to place your drink on. The three tapas available were fried pieces of cod, cod fritters and something called banderilla (I never figured out what it was). I ordered us some cod fritters while Brad purchased our beer. The fritters were tasty. All the restaurants in Madrid give you this flimsy little napkins that are kind of waxy and not absorbent at all. Everyone was tossing their napkins on the floor of Casa Labra so we joined in with the crowd. After Casa Labra we went to Museo de Jamon (Museum of Ham), a chain of tapas bars/delicatessens. We sampled some iberian ham and manchego cheese. With our order came a complimentary plate of black and green olives. All was tasty as usual.