Toledo shuffle

Three nights in Valencia. A decent period for a city break, but as usual not enough to get beneath the skin of a place to reach its beating heart. I passed through the central market just as it was closing. I grabbed a peak of the cathedral just as they were saying Mass. I didn’t even go into the science museum in the park; it’s quite expensive and online advice suggests the exterior is just as impressive. And that’s how I experienced Valencia, from the outside; exploring the evocative narrow streets, soaking the balmy Saturday night atmosphere as around me groups of tourists and friends (never massive crowds) cheerily moved from place to place along the time-honoured alleyways.

If three nights in Valencia wasn’t enough, try one night in one of Spain’s greatest historical treasures. Come with me now as we leave Valencia, and get the two hour train to north Madrid before crossing the city to get the train out to glorious Toledo.

And now seethe with frustration as we find that it takes an hour to get from Madrid Chamartin station in the north to Atocha station in the south. Well it doesn’t really; there’s a metro and a suburban line and it takes a few minutes. But for some reason I yomped my way to the metro, only to find there was a bus replacement to Atocha from – well from somewhere, I couldn’t work out where, yomped back to where the suburban trains were, and after more confusion about what ticket to buy finally jumped on a train – with what turned out to be the wrong ticket.

Reminder to self: having some basic Spanish while knowing that English will bail you out in most cases is generally OK. But you never know when the English translation will turn out to be even more incomprehensible.

Having sheepishly paid the excess fare at the other end, I waited for the train that would whisk me on the short journey to Toledo and soon I was there.

Toledo. UN World Heritage Site of Toledo. A magnificently preserved walled city on a hill, spectacularly girdled by the River Tagus.

A Muslim city. A Jewish city. A Christian city from 1085, from which time the three communities continued to co-exist for another two centuries or so. Leaving behind a riot of mosques-cum-churches, mosque-like churches, synagogues, convents, too much for just one afternoon.

Toledo, the city where Charles V moved his Holy Roman court a number of times. (We’ve met Charles V before : https://wp.me/p9E0Hz-j3. We’ll probably bump into him again some day). The city that the great painter El Greco made his home. And, apparently, the city that still has a reputation for sword-making.

And here we have a combination of the last two. This El Grecoesque figure is admiring the new spear he’s just purchased from the shop behind. My, look how amazed he is by how long and sharp his pointy bit is.