Toledo

I haven't had Internet access for awhile so many apologies for the delay in these blogs...

On Monday we went to Toledo. We took the bus directly from Madrid. It was easy to get to the bus station in Madrid, however arriving in Toledo was a whole different story. The bus station is located outside of the city walls and at the bottom of a hill, making it an arduous climb to the town. The streets are intertwined and hard to follow, making it incredibly difficult to make your way into town without a taxi, car, or other buses (which we didn't know the smaller buses existed until we were already in the town). After about fifteen minutes of wondering around we hailed a cab and made our way up to Toledo.

We started at the tourist information center near the cathedral and realized that since it was Monday many things were closed. This was of course a bummer but we still managed to make the most of our day there. I highly suggest looking into the monuments and attractions on your list and making sure they are open when you plan your visit (this applies to any sites in any city).

We had lunch near the old monastery and then made our way towards the opposite end of the city, marveling at the architecture, souvenir shops, and the tiny streets surrounding us. The most common souvenir from Toledo is knives and swords so pretty much all of the shops had windows full of something of the sort.

We made our way back to the cathedral and went in. Unfortunately we weren't able to take any photos, but they wouldn't even do this beautiful building any justice. The cathedral in Toledo is one of the oldest gothic buildings in Europe, and it was the most impressive monument we had seen so far. It was another one of those moments where everyone is silent and in awe of where they are standing. Along with the architecture, the cathedral houses many "treasures" (old bibles, statues, paintings, etc) that are spectacular and totally worth seeing.

After walking around the cobble stoned streets of Toledo, we hailed another cab to the bus station and headed back to Madrid. Taking the bus to Toledo wasn't all bad, it's only 4 euros and they leave every half hour. All in all it's probably the easiest way to visit this little gem.


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