Day Trip to Toledo

Today we took a day trip to Toledo, Spain.  We had previously made online reservations on the Renfe Train to Toledo, and our train was scheduled to depart at 9:20 am.  This was the earliest train to Toledo on Sunday.  We left our Hotel at about 8:15 am and walked to the Sol Metro stop.  This was not the closest Metro stop to our hotel, but it was just a little farther away, but from that stop we could go directly to the Atoche Renfe Train Station Metro stop, the station for the high speed AVE trains.  We had also hoped to find something open for a quick breakfast on the way to the Sol Metro, but most everything was closed that early on a Sunday.  It was actually amazing, the street in front of our hotel is pedestrian only, and all of yesterday afternoon and last night, it was packed with people.  This morning, it was almost empty.

We were glad we had made this journey to the train station,  since it will be a dress rehearsal for our train trip to Malaga, Spain on Monday morning.  It was fairly easy and straightforward, but there were a couple of areas where we were slightly confused on the direction to go when transitioning from the Metro station to the Renfe Train Station.  We ended up eating a danish at a coffee shop, and I had a typical strong European coffee.

We went through the security and sent our backpacks through the baggage x-ray and headed out to our platform to board the train for the 30 minute ride to Toledo.  The train was very punctual, departing and arriving right on time.  There was not a lot of  interesting countryside to see on the way, it was mostly flat pasture land.  We departed the train in Toledo, and walked through the beautiful Toledo Train Station.

Outside of the station, we found the bus stop for the city buses into Toledo. We rode the city bus up to the top of the hill that Toledo is built on, to the highest building, the Alcazar.

We wondered around there for a little bit trying to find a map of the city, and finally found one at an information building near the Cathedral.  We knew it would have been easier to purchase a map at a kiosk in the train station, but it is not normally a problem to find free street maps at the usually abundant information booths.  In this instance, it was more difficult, but still not bad.   The main problem is that the streets in Toledo are narrow and winding, blocking the view of the surrounding areas, so you must have a map to determine how to get around.

The information building was also the only public restroom we had seen, so made use of the facilities. With map in hand, we started out to see the sights. We knew that the Toledo Cathedral did not open until 2:00 pm, so we started out looking for a few of the smaller churches. The first church we visited was the Santo Tome, which was famous for having one of El Greco’s painting in it. We went inside the church looking for the painting, only to discover it was in the rear of the church, and not accessible from the main part of the church. There were separate doors for the viewing of the painting, and there was a charge to see it. Unfortunately, we did not go inside, there were long lines from tour groups waiting to get in. We decided we would just continue walking around to see other things instead. We did enjoy the inside of the church itself.

Our plan was to then head over to the Santa Cruz Museum, famous for having several paintings from El Greco. On the way we found a Jesuit Church, the Iglesia de San Ildefonso, which had two tall bell towers,  offering great views of the city of Toledo from the top of the towers. There was a small entrance fee, but the inside of the church was beautiful, and they allowed photography inside, usually a rarity in Spain, and well worth the small admission price.

After looking inside, we started the climb up to the top of the towers. The view of the city was nice, so we set up the tripod, and took our picture with the Cathedral steeple in the background.

Afterward, we headed over to get a bite to eat for lunch, before heading over to the other side of the town to see the Santa Cruz Museum. We had a little difficulty finding the museum entrance, it was tucked away on a side street. However, we did find a nice place to take some pictures from the edge of the walled city before finally finding the museum entrance.

Once there, we discovered the museum was under renovation, and all of the artwork had been removed. I had remembered reading about this before leaving on the trip, but had neglected to make a note of it in our Toledo information.

By this time, the Cathedral had opened, so we headed in that direction, On the way, we did a little shopping for gifts. Toledo is known for its gold embellished artwork, inlaid on a steel plate surface. the plates come in sizes anywhere from about 2 inches, all the way up to 8-9 inches. The more expensive ones were hand made, and have 24 ct. gold inlays. Others (mostly smaller versions) are made with a machine.

We finally made it over to the Toledo Cathedral, it is an impressive building from the outside, but since it is in the middle of the town, there is no particular area where you can get a good overall view of the outside of the building, the streets are too winding, and the building too close.

We did find out that the admission today was free, we are not sure why, whether it was because it is Sunday, or because of the holiday that will be in Madrid on Monday. We did not think about it too long, we just went on inside. Unfortunately, there were signs posted everywhere prohibiting photography, so we put all of the camera equipment away. It was very impressive inside, the stone columns were very large. From reading about the cathedral in the guide book, we found out that it took about 250 years to construct, and varied in architecture, most likely changing as the time to construct went forward. The main altar in the cathedral was a tremendous sight, it was very tall, and almost all of the area was covered in gold guild on wood.

Directly across from the altar was the choir area, and there were two different pipe organs, built many years apart from each other.

We saw a lot of people taking pictures, basically ignoring the signs not to, so we ignored them also, and took some photos of the altar and of the choir area. It is almost a shame that with such beauty, they do not allow you to take photos. A lot of the other parts of the cathedral were not very well lit, so taking photos without a flash, even with an advanced camera, would have been difficult. Maybe that was part of the reason, too many people using flashes, and disrupting the overall experience. We walked around the rest of the cathedral, there were many separate, small chapels along the sides, and several large rooms off to the side away from the main area. One of these, the old Sacristy, contained several pieces of art from El Greco, and several from other famous artists. The El Greco works were of a period where dark paintings must have been the norm, they were not very colorful or bright.

There was another room with paintings of all of the Archbishops of Toledo since about 600 AD. Some of the earlier versions were said to be more of a rendition of the earlier Archbishops than a real likeness, these were painted in about 1500 AD., well after the real subject’s deaths.   However, many of the archbishops after about 1500 AD were indeed actual paintings of the person.

We spent about an hour and a half wondering through the Cathedral, then went back out on the streets to do dome more shopping before heading out on the bus back to the Toledo train station.  We then walked back toward Toledo to take a few pictures of the walled city from the river.

We took some more photos of the town from the area below by the river. Then, arriving back at the train station, we went into the station’s cafeteria and ordered a couple of cervezas (beers) while waiting for our train.

The train ride back was uneventful, it was dark outside by the time the train departed, so there was nothing to see, and we were both tired. Seems like we both may have taken short naps on the ride back to Madrid.

Once back at the hotel, we dropped off of our backpacks and headed out for a bite to eat.  We were both tired, so we just got a small sandwich from one of the local bars near the hotel, then it was back to the room to pack.  We will be departing early in the morning, around 6:30 am, to retrace our path back to the  Atoche Renfe Train Station.  This time, we will be taking an even higher speed train (300 km/hr or about 200 mph) to Malaga, Spain, the port city where we will board our cruise ship.