October 12th – A day in Toledo

Today we got out about an hour earlier than normal and took the Metro down to the Atocha station and bought tickets to Toledo. It’s a 30 minute train ride from Madrid, so we got to see some of the countryside just south of the city. It looks quite a bit like Colorado because it’s so dry with rolling hills. Toledo sits just on the edge of some large hills bordering on the mountains of Toledo and surrounded on 3 sides by a river Tajo. It was the first city liberated from the Moors in the 11^th century and is the religious center of Spain. The ancient quarter is pretty small and is chock full of little streets and squares very much reminding us of Venice, except for the hills. It’s really hilly and you’re always going either up or down. We found a tiny square in one of the back streets and stopped at some outdoor tables attached to a little bar/restaurant about 30 yards downhill from the tables.

I had my first my first taste of Toledana cuisine in the character of a half partridge while Deb had a concoction of pork and chorizo in sautéed in a tomato and olive oil sauce. Both were very good.

After lunch we walked across the old quarter to the church of San Tomeo which is where the El Greco ‘Burial of the Count of Orgaz’ is displayed. This is considered one of the greatest of El Greco’s masterpieces and it sure lives up to its billing; it was painted specifically for the space in which it still resides 400 years later. Afterwards we just walked around the quarter and enjoyed ourselves. Being out of season it is not nearly as crowded as normal and much less hot, but it’s still busy only now it’s more Spaniards than other tourists. There is so much here to see that we are planning to come back again to see the rest. The El Greco museum and the Cathedral are among the top destinations in Spain, if not the world. We finally had a light rain in the evening so we walked from the Atocha station up to one of our bus stops to ride home. It was around 8:30pm and the bus was really crowded, no REALLY CROWDED. We were packed into a standing area right next to the rear door every time the bus stopped more people poured on. If one got off five got on, even with baby carriages, it was a madhouse. At one point the driver opened the back door and I had to grab a woman who was almost propelled out the door. Like I said, a madhouse.