Fleeting glimpses of Toledo

We leave Toledo today, and I am knackered. Travelling with teenagers is exhausting fun - especially when they discover tapas. (Proper tapas, where you each get a free tiny snack with every drink, not the stupid sort they do in Britain with sharing plates.

Toledo is Spain's mediaeval capital and religious heart, so stuffed with gorgeous monasteries, in particular San Juan de los Reyes, where Ferdinand and Isabella had planned to be buried. They changed their mind after conquering Granada.
Impressive, no?
We climbed the cathedral tower.
We also dragged Big Goddaughter to two of the three remaining complete mediaeval synogogues in Spain.
We haven't missed out on art, either: this city is El Greco central. By the time we were saying, "Look, a Titian!" she seemed a bit paintinged out. None of us have tired of tapas, though.

Comments

  1. Glad you're enjoying your holiday and it looks like the weather has improved as well. We used to go on city breaks with my husband's teenage daughter. Very exhausting indeed! xxx

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  2. "El Greco central."
    Love that.

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    1. Most of his major works are there, including the Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which is huge. Big Goddaughter found the El Greco museum, which was founded by someone at the start of the 20th century who thought he'd bought El Greco's house but hadn't, hilarious - just the notion of going round a house that wasn't actually his tickled her no end. It did also contain some amazing paintings, though.

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  3. Toledo looks fabulous! Love the architecture. You seem to be having a wonderful time, Mim!

    xxx

    Veronica

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  4. Impressive?
    No, it's breath-taking!
    It's so fused with history and art, that is emits those emotion out of my screen. Oh, Mim - I can see you're having an amazing time. You guise deserve it!

    M.

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    1. It really is an astonishing place. So much art! So many amazing buildings. Most tourists come as daytrippers from Madrid, so it's really lovely in the evening as the city is much more quiet.

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  5. He who tires of tapas tires of life, or something. Everything about Toledo looks to be stunning. I am so in awe of the beautiful buildings and love a bit of El Greco. Chiaroscuro for the win! :) Xx

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    1. I deffo recommend Toledo, and it's really easy to get to from Madrid as long as you book your train tickets in advance. Half an hour on the train and you're there.

      (NB NEVER DRIVE IN TOLEDO. The Spanish have a term 'Toledo paint job' for a car scraped down both sides. The streets are very narrow.)

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  6. Wowzer, am adding Toledo to my list!! Fab pictures x

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    1. Dead easy to do from Madrid - prebook the rail travel, get an early flight into Madrid, then take the Cercanias (NOT the Metro as it'll take longer and you'll have to change trains, plus the Cercanias is cheaper) round to Atocha, and it's a half-hour ride on the AVE away.

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  7. Oooh, all the architecture! Lovely, lovely xxx

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  8. Hope there's loads of olives and fritatta - I'd never tire of them.
    Toledo looks stunning. xxx

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    1. Hehehe, not fritatta - tortilla. (That one confused Big Goddaughter as she's American and is used to Mexican tortilla, so getting potato omelette bemused her. And I warned her that Spanish 'tacos' are simply pieces of something, but she ordered salmon tacos anyway and received a plate of fish chunks.)

      I think it's tough to be veggie in most of the free tapas towns, as they don't give you a choice of tapas, and most contain meat. I guess you could explain you were vegetarian when ordering drinks and hoping the right thing turned up, but the Spanish don't class fish or ham as meat so you might still get those.

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  9. You guys did and saw so much on your travels. Awesome! The medieval synagogue must have been incredibly lovely to experience firsthand.

    xoxo ♥ Jessica

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