TOLEDO

Madrid, Spain
Day 26
Riosol Hostal
Toledo

We had our last breakfast at the Regente and checked out in rainy dismal weather. Oh no! We had to trudge around in wet weather with our packs on board to get to our next accomodation. No worries though, it wasn´t far. Thank god! Greg did take a photo of me with my silly raincoat on tho..and i took one of him looking very ninja turtleish!

Those backpacks! Gawd....what we´ve discovered though, is their actually better than suitcases when it comes to going up and down stairs! (Metro´s etc!) And they´re waterproof! So, they´re not so bad afterall, and we´re getting used to them!

When we got to the hostal we got excited. So much cheaper and more like we´d intended for this trip (remember, we have our budget!). It´s so funny though, no one understands English. Even the guys at the hotels and hostals. They don´t seem to really know what on earth we´re on about, and what´s more, when we do try to say, in our stilted clear english, what we´re talking about..they answer in fluent long spanish!

We must just look like we´re standing there with our dumbfounded looks agreeing! Of all countries we´ve both been to, we´ve decided this country is the one that lacks communication with tourists. Not that that´s a particularly bad thing, it´just seems to be the thing that just ís´. Doesn´t help us though! When we asked the Hostal guy if there was a lounge or anything at the hostal..he promptly got his map out and circled the laundry, 2 blocks away and gave us a contented look!

OH DEAR!

And it´s the same everywhere here it seems. Spain is full of Spanish! Now i know that sounds very logical and of common sense..but it´s the only country that seems to lack multiculturalism! Very few other nationalities, from what we can see! Oh wait. Lots of South Americans tho..and what do they speak? (Spanish!) :-)

TOLEDO.

That was our plan for today.

We caught the metro (underground train) then the bus and it all worked like clockwork, thanks to Greg´s `´plotting´! We arrived in Toledo. The place to go according to the Lonely Planet. A old knights town that is situated behind a fortress wall.

Firstly, we were hungry so we trotted off to the Cafetaria. We looked at the menu and knowing people didn´t speak much english decided to point to the picture at the wall and go with that. It was a salad roll and a drink. He spoke Spanish back to us and we said, ´ce´. In a few minutes the roll came back..with 10 little sausages and no salad. We just looked at it! OK. Let´s just eat that. (i rarely eat, if ever eat, sausage!).

We take our massive sausage sandwich and because there´s no table and only two little tables at one end of the cafe Greg picks one up and pulls a couple of chairs and there we are. All set. To eat.

The next thing WE GOT A MOUTHFUL!

The spanish guy must have decided this was just not the thing to do. He yelled and screamed (LOUDLY) at us, in spanish, with us not knowing what a clue he was saying, and then he promptly came over, grabbed the table and pointed for us to ´sit thereª!It was probably more like...."$·$%$/%/&%(/&$ SIT THERE!"

The poor old guy that we had to sit with was flabbagasted. We were. And the rest of the cafe stared at us.

I wonder what they said?

He was probably saying ´"bloody tourists!"

Off we headed to Toledo sites. And when we got behind the wall (trudged up a million steps to get there) we got into the quaint and so beautiful town. It was like going back a hundred years. Or more. What a place. Just beautiuful. We went to the Toledo Museum and Cathedra. Is the Cathedral a man made wonder of the world?

The art work, the design, the gold, the statues, the whole place was just AMAZING! We were treated with the works of Greco, Goya, Raphael. The leadlight was just wondrous.

One has to wonder about the extravagence?

Did people starve while this was being built over 300 years?

The town of Toledo was just exceptional. The bars abound. What is it about the Spanish bars? They are so appealing. Every window has the lure of wine and tapas. And so delightful.

We decided we had to head back to Madrid. At the hostal we´re at there is a 11pm curfew! So we had to get back, have something to eat and get in before curfew!

We found a gorgeous bar in Madrid where we had nuts and wine. We took pics and the barman was so friendly. A cute little place.

We also bought the book, Iberia (Spain) by James Mitchener. And from what i´ve read, he has a great perspective on Spain. Not unlike how we feel as well. It´s a place that is not that friendly to ´foreigners´but it´s a place of passion, of intense loyalty and arrogance and a place that is certain to grow on us.

Which is why we´ve decided to stay another week!