Day 60: South to Toledo

Time to move on again after seeing a bit of Madrid! And of course, it was time for another UNESCO site. Our destination for the day was Toledo, an old capital city and important town for a lot of Spanish history, about an hour to the south of Madrid. It existed in pre-Roman times, and was one of the most important Visigoth towns in Spain, but after the Moorish conquest it declined in importance as the royal court moved to Cordoba. It was reconquered by the Christians in 1085 and was one of their most important cities until the seat of power moved to Madrid in the 16th century.

So a pretty interesting place, with a lot of history to check out. The drive was only an hour or so which passed uneventfully, and we arrived at a lookout over the town for an early look around midday, as we couldn't check in to our apartment until 1pm. Nice view from up here, plenty of the walls left as well as the tall spires of the cathedral and the alcazar (royal palace) sticking up.

Drove down into the city to find our apartment, but discovered fairly quickly that google maps was going to be pretty useless. Many streets were one-way, pedestrian only or far too narrow for the car, so we dropped it in a parking station and walked the last few hundred metres.

It was quite nice, with a tiny balcony overlooking the alleyway below, only a minute or so's walk from the back of the cathedral. Bathroom was quite old (fixtures were all peach-coloured porcelain!), but the rest of it was nice. Dropped our bags and headed out into the city to explore.

Lots to see here, with the big cathedral, alleyways, a very pretty and well-preserved old town, towers, convents, mosques and even a synagogue. We had some lunch (typical three-course menu of the day) then did quite a bit of wandering before heading back to the apartment around 6pm. We didn't go inside any of the buildings as Schnitzel was with us, but figured since we had two nights here we'd save them for tomorrow. Only did a small amount of filming as well.

Rested up for a couple of hours (Shandos had a nap and I watched Man United vs Chelsea), before heading back out in the evening for some dinner. Managed to find quite a good tapas restaurant with decent prices, where we had a few different dishes including a quail breast topped with dried rice noodles, a poached egg and sweet chilli sauce. The place was called La Cave and we were sitting on a glass floor about 10 metres above the wine cellar, a little unnerving but fun!

Headed back to the apartment around 10pm, by which time it was finally dark and everything was lit up. Very few people around now which was quite nice! Toledo's densely packed attractions, picturesque outlook and proximity to Madrid means it's a very common daytrip for most visitors to Madrid, and during the day it swarms with tourists. It's probably the most densely touristed place we've been to so far, but after dark it was very pleasant - still tourists around, but the selfie stick hordes had departed back to Madrid.

Looking forward to more exploring tomorrow!Read more