Toledo

A day in Toledo! Woke up early because we had to meet Alfonso some 20 minutes away. He had sent us the address, so it was a matter of using Google maps (which I’ve been using for all my transit stuff) to get to his apt. Knew from his profile that he was about 28 years old. We had paid up front - 10 Euros for the both of us each way. Short metro ride and then about a 6 block walk and we were there! He popped out of his apt on the dot and there was Janet and I and one other guy and off we went! Nice new car - took us about an hour to get to Toledo. He dropped us in the middle of town and we were ready for a day of exploring. We arranged to meet him again at 1900 (7pm) to take us back when he got off work. As it turns out, he is working on an environmental project there in Toledo, building some sort of park. His wife practices family law back in Madrid. He learned his English studying in London. - also speaks French because he works for a French company. Said it was a lot easier to learn French than English, which makes sense since French/Spanish are Romance languages.

Our first stop was to grab some breakfast and we stupidly sat down at an outdoor cafe in the main square, which is a move you should never make as you know you are going to get hosed. But we were hungry and I was feeling grumpy till I got food disappearing down my windpipe, so we sat down for a few Spanish omelette and about $30 later we were done. Food was ok, but the bill made me choke a bit.

Stopped at the tourism office for a quick moment to get a map - the guy circled about 10 things in rapid fire order and said see ya later. He smiled and everyone else did like they had just bestowed the greatest favor on us. Had to chuckle a bit over that - never used the map - went back to Google Maps and headed off to the Cathedral, which I kid you not, is friggin’ awesome. Probably not the best words to describe a cathedral, but this church tops all churches that I have seen in Europe. We spent about 3 hours there.

Left there and just started wandering. Knew there was a church that had great views of the city - thought we had it pinpointed. Went to it, paid the entrance fees, walked up in the tower and thought - “gee, this view is not really that great”. Back down we went , got outside the church, fired up Google maps and said - “Whoops!” - There’s the church we were supposed to be seeing! So more money and got to climb another tower that did indeed provide the views we were looking for!

More wandering and then sat down in a restaurant and had Tapas and glasses of wine before wandering back to meet Alfonso. Hour back to Madrid, we hit the grocery store for more wine and coffeee, then metro it back to the apt. All in all - a great day, made very easy by BlaBla Car (https://www.blablacar.co.uk).

Pictures to follow!Read more