La Ruta Liza: Toledo

Last weekend, another auxiliar, named Kitty, and I ventured to Toledo. We barely made our ten am bus because a taxi cab driver took her the "scenic route" getting to the station, when she was literally just a few blocks away from it, but unsure of how to get there, when she hailed him. Fortunately, I arrived early by metro and had already bought our tickets. I was standing at the bus with our two tickets at 10 am begging the bus driver not to go without us. He said, "No te pasa nada si tienes que coger el proximo bus." There's no problem if you have to catch the next bus. Well, I didn't want to wait any longer, as I'd been at the station for 45 minutes...I was itching to be on my way to Toledo! In the end, Kitty appeared and in fact was not the last person to board the bus..and at 10:02 we were on our merry way to the medieval capitol of Spain, Toledo! Buses are exceptionally punctual compared to all other scheduled affairs in this country. Hay que llegar a tiempo! You must arrive on time, or you'll miss the bus!

At the bus station in Toledo, I followed other tourists as they hurried over to the information office. There, a man whipped out maps of Toledo and quickly talked each person through the ins and outs of the city, circling the most important historical sites and mentioning the parts of town less necessary to explore..which was a very slight portion of Toledo's whole. In fact, when I asked him if we should take a bus to the city's wall, or walk from the station (which he said would be about a 30 minute walk, but which is actually closer to a 15 minute walk), he responded, "Toledo es todo un museo! No hay ningun camino feo." So, we planned to walk through the beautiful, museum-like streets of Toledo. We felt blessed because although the weather forecast promised rain, not a drop descended from el cielo.

Before heading to the heart of town, we walked away from it into a newer neighborhood where lived our couch surfing hosts. This was my first experience ever couch surfing and I must say the hospitality we received from the Spanish couple, Gemma and Alberto, completely shocked me. Shortly after arriving, Gemma showed us to our private bedroom and bathroom on our own floor, separate from where she and Alberto sleep, dine and lounge around. Then, she asked if we wouldn't care for a couple of glasses of fresh squeezed Valencia zumo de naranja (orange juice). Well, yes, we'd love that! We drank up and packed for our day exploring Toledo. Before we commenced, Alberto sat down with us and our map of Toledo and further explained the city to us, assuring us that in a day we could walk around the whole city easily and see any of the churches and museums we wanted to. It seemed that just about every museum would cost 3-7 euros to see, so Kitty and I would have to pick and choose...or so we thought.

First stop: Toledo's public library. Surprise, surprise, it's an old church. From the top of which you view, for free, spectacular vistas of the old medieval town, its wall and the river winding around it.

Walking the streets: Long, long ago, the streets of Toledo were designed intentionally as a defense mechanism to lose and confuse enemies. They are of many lengths and widths and from the start of a street it is nearly impossible (unless you have a GPS tracker like I have) to know whether or not it will sharply turn away from your target, take you suddenly down or up a hill or just plain dead-end. Many are so narrow that cars cannot pass through, making Toledo an ideal city to walk through. However, it surprised me that cars do indeed enter the heart of Toledo. These cars tend to be European sized cars...no 4RUNNERS, or SUVS. Drivers must carefully select which roads to take and watch out for pedestrians because in most cases there is no space separate from the road for people to walk and there is virtually no wiggle room between those of us walking and driving..and walkers by far out number drivers! I do not imagine it would be fun to drive through the laberynthesque streets of Toledo's walled-in center..

La Santa Iglesia (Gothic style cathedral, constructed in 1227): Kitty, being Catholic, wanted to visit Toledo's most important Cathedral more than any other historic site. To enter, we paid 8 euros (more than 10 dollars) and our tickets came with free audio headphones. I believe that I had gone to this church as a child with my family when we visited Toledo on our tour of Spain many, many moons ago. It must be one of the most ornate structures I've seen in my life, cielings painted as the heavens, marble floors gleaming, gold-plaited framing on every painting and shrine, and on and on and on. Absolutely every part of the cathedral told or depicted a story, even the doors, even the ceilings, even the walls of every chamber. My favorite part of the church was the central patio, where I could see the sky, and where in its center grew several orange trees. The walls of this patio were fascinating to me, for some were entirely covered by murals; however, as you walked around, the murals became less and less complete until finally you came to white, untouched walls.

Eating Bocadillos: After visiting the Cathedral, we ventured toward the Jewish section of the town. I wanted to see a Synagogue (as well a Mosque), since Toledo is famous for the coexistence, as well as for the feuding, of these three religous groups. We ate bocadillos, Spanish sandwiches. They tend to be dry and simple, consisting of baguette and meat of any kind or cheese or tortilla espanola, which is egg and potato omlette. I felt grateful when I noticed that many of the bocadillos at this restuarant came with pickled esparagus and slices of tomato, at no special request for no extra cost! While eating, I asked the waitor if he recommended that we see one synagogue over the other, and he quickly responded that we should go to the synagogue located beside El Greco's museum/house, because both of these were free to enter on Saturdays, our luck! You can imagine where we ventured after lunch...feeling as if we'd landed on a small pile of gold! Before leaving, we each ate a bite of Mazapan (Marzipan), famously made and celebrated by Toledanos.

Museo el Greco: I wish I could live in a house as beautiful as the reconstructed version of El Greco's. It is at least three times larger than the pisos people live in today, with its own garden and central patio. It is built across the street from a park, where his original house once lay, poised with a veiw out toward the River, Tajo, the longest river to run through the Iberian Peninsula, beginning near Madrid and flowing all the way to Lisbon, Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The house is fully furnished by centuries old artifacts, outlined by descriptions of Greco's life, and of course, contains many original paintings by Greco and his contemporaries...tending to be of ghostly pale Catholic Saints.

Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca: This synagogue, constructed in 1180, is famed to be among Europe's oldest Jewish temples. I was too exhausted by the time we entered it to fully appreciate its contents and stories...but I did find the artifacts shown throughout to be fascinating, especially the very ancient hand tools and figurines, and I found its decor to be much less overwhelming, but still beautiful, compared to the Cathedral's.

Puente de San Martin: Puentes (bridges) and Puertas (giant doors/gates) are the ways in and out of Toledo's walled center...unless you manage to climb up and over the wall, which I was unable to do in our day and half long visit. Walking across this bridge was one of my favorite parts of our exploration of the city. Why? I saw cormorants standing atop rocks in el rio Tajo, drying out their wings! The river and surrounding countryside of Toledo relieved me of the views of walls and buildings and walls and buildings I've had since moving to Madrid. On the far side of the bridge many tour buses awaited the company of travelers. I wonder if this is where our tour bus parked when we came to Toledo as a family? Did we also walk across el Puente de San Martin to enter Toledo? If I had had more time, I could have enjoyed a long walk or run along the river, for there's a footpath that follows the river for several kilometers.

Gemma and Alberto's offering: Around 7 pm, Gemma and Alberto met us near the center of Toledo, at McDonnalds (among the only places you can go and use public restrooms without fear of being asked to buy something) and drove us to the afueras de la ciudad (the surrounding hills in the nearby countryside) to view the city at sunset. This, my first sunset viewing in Spain..another wave of relief. Afterward, they took us back to the center for a long night of tapas. We tried a very typical Toledano dish, carcamusas..and went from bar to bar touring the city by night. Alberto and Gemma took me to see an old church that was for a long time abandoned. Now it is by day an art gallery and cafe and by night a discotech. I had a wonderful time with this couple, speaking in Spanish and talking about our cultures and worldviews. I wish these two were Madrilenos, so I could see them often!

In the morning, Gemma and Alberto fed us breakfast of cereal, yogurt, fruit and toast. A little later, I ventured out on my own to do some further exploration of the city. I climbed up into two church towers and I revisited the disco to see it by daylight as an art gallery. I celebrated the completion of one month in Spain and I bought a treat to bring back to Gemma and Alberto...which was ever such a slight offering compared to all they had given us. When I returned, they offered me a home-cooked comida, followed by the desert I brought and other treats, including honey from Alberto's father's bees, and coffee...oh my! Plus, they chatted with us a great deal about where we ought to go in Spain. Alberto is from Galicia so he raved about Northern Spain, while Gemma is more the expert of the south..so between the two of them, I feel tempted to travel in just about every direction. We'll see what time, energy and cost allow!