Holy Toledo

Poor WiFi connections at our hotel have impacted my blogging...I'm still around!

We have been in Madrid the past week. Yesterday we did a  day trip by train to Toledo.  The drive would have been two hours but the high speed train got us there in 20 minutes. Toledo was the capital of Spain before Madrid. We went directly to the old part of the city which sits on the highest terrain in the area. The fortress wall is still visible around the base of the city.

We wandered through the narrow cobblestone streets...

There were lots of knife shops...my husband was thrilled to do some window shopping.

Colorful pottery.

More wandering...

One of many lovely churches.

The church had a courtyard with an unusual combination of plants...a blue spruce and several orange trees.

Toledo had large populations of  Muslim, Christian and Jewish populations.  The Jewish populations was known as Sephardic Jews and thrived in Toledo for hundreds of years. The phrase, "Holy Toledo," is credited to the Sephardic Jews who immigrated to America and considered Toledo the holiest of Jewish cities. We came upon an historic synagog, a much simpler structure than the catholic churches.

More wandering through narrow streets.

All that walking required a few stops to boost our energy. We got a nice little treat with our beer at one sidewalk cafe. Our little sandwiches had a thin slice of a potato and egg baked mixture.

Every now and then we saw some interesting tile work.

Then it was time to start making our way down to the train station.

I had a wonderful cappuccino at the solitary snack bar of the train station.

I have been visiting art museums in Madrid so not much to show you from those visits as photos are not allowed.