Escalators and Swords
Toledo is the old capital of Spain and is about an hour on a coach south of Madrid. It’s known as the frying pan of Spain, and it deserves the title, it was scorchio! The city centre is at the top of a hill in a loop in the river Tagus, which is why the Visigoths chose it for their capital. The Visigoths were a Germanic tribe (the Western Goths) who took over Spain after the Roman empire collapsed, and in turn, were replaced by the Arabs. To get to the city centre from the coach park there are six escalators to take you up to the top of the hill, otherwise, half the tourists would expire during the ascent.
It is a beautiful ancient city of narrow winding streets and endless cafes and souvenir shops. It reminded me of York, Dubrovnik, and Carcassonne, which are all exceptionally beautiful cities but are a bit spoiled by their success.
The temperature was about 35 degrees, so lunch in the shade with a glass of cold vino Blanco was a very attractive prospect. We chose the menu del dia at El Cafe de las Monjas, which was a real belt buster.
The Spanish love their potatoes boiled fried and in omelettes, and have bread with everything, yet most of them are slim and fit looking. It must the magical Mediterranean diet, which so far hasn’t worked on me.
The cathedral is the primary one in Spain and is very big and very Gothic. It has twenty-four chapels around the inside and huge columns supporting a massive roof. There are religious paintings everywhere, in the Middle Ages that was just about the only type of painting people wanted. The interior was quiet and cool, a great place to go during the heat of the afternoon.
There are two main souvenirs available in Toledo, Damascus steelwork and swords. The Damascus steel is black plates, jugs, and jewelry inlaid with gold pattern, very pretty. Toledo steel was the best in the world in the Middle Ages, which is how Cortez and Pizarro conquered South America. These days the shops are full of reproduction swords to hang on your walls, of all shapes and sizes: Spanish swords, cutlasses, Orc swords, Elf swords, Game of Thrones swords. Then there are folding knives and sheath knives of every description and size. I found it all very weird that all that lethal hardware was openly on sale, it was like going to a Walmart in Wisconsin.
Back in Madrid in the late afternoon, we explored the area near our accommodation. Calle Fuencarrel was full of young people trying to get bargains in sales at the many fashion shops that line the street. In the middle of the throng was a haven of beer and tortilla, the Rocablanca cafeteria. It is a very good ordinary bar, nothing trendy about it, just perfect at what it does. The three staff work at lightning speed with practiced efficiency, pouring drinks, slicing tortilla and serving tapas. We drank the ubiquitous Mahou beer with some tortilla and fried squid, it was just perfect. Two of the staff were having a good old row while serving customers, it was street theatre of the finest sort!
timharnesstravels 
One thought on “Spain Tour 2018 – Day 7”