488: Toledo ("city of three cultures")

Spanish lessons (for the academic year 2022-2023) start tomorrow. I thought I might sneak in a quick visit somewhere in Spain before the 3-times-a-week lessons begin. I decided to visit Toledo. It's only 70 km outside Madrid and its historic quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Spanish AVE high-speed trains whisk one from Camp de Tarragona to Madrid in under 3 hours at speeds of up to 300 km an hour. Why city of three cultures? Moorish, Christian & Jewish. Toledo was the capital of Spain for a long time, until they decamped to Madrid. It also has a long history of the production of knives and swords and there were many such available to buy in the shops. 

Using Trivago,I picked a very nicely-modernised apartment inside the old town. The enormous benefit, for me at least, of an apartment rather than a hotel is that I don't have to wait for my breakfast until Spain wakes up. 

The disadvantage of picking an apartment inside the city walls is that there were many narrow cobbled streets, twisting and turning, rising and falling. The tourist office was closed at 5pm, a long siesta I suppose, so no town maps available to help navigate but thankfully Google maps saved me from getting lost until I could familiarise myself with the layout.

There were lots and lots of tourists and they kept getting in my way! (How dare they! 😀). I must confess I enjoyed McDonalds much more than the food I was given in Spanish 'restaurants' (ravioli one day and tortillitas de camarones the next). I do understand that if I could only wait until after 8 p.m. I could find a decent restaurant. But I can't as it's far too close to this old man's bedtime.