King of the Castle

Yesterday, we took a 1 hour bus ride to the tiny village of Toledo just 40 miles south of Madrid. It´s an incredibly pretty place: small fortress town built on a hill and surrounded on 3 sides by a river. It looks like one of those backgrounds that you would see in any Renaissance portrait, such as Mona Lisa´s. You see it, and you really can´t believe it´s in front of you. It looks unreal.

After jumping off the bus, we made the short trek up the hill to the castle where we would be spending the night. HI (Hostels International) placed a hostel inside a castle overlooking the village. I couldn´t believe the accommodations: for 10 to 15 €, we were given a room equivalent to any you´d find in a nice hotel. We were in heaven. This castle hostel (or "hastle" as I like to call it) had suits of armor scattered throughout the building, warding us off from whatever forces were going to attack us in the night. No one spoke English throughout the building, which I had anticipated for a small town like Toledo, so I really butchered the Spanish language and yet somehow was able to make things happen.

Inside the walls of the fortress village, we visited the Museo de Santa Cruz to learn a little bit about the history of Toledo. They had a few goofy multimedia exhibits, showing a computer animated St. Ildefonso walking around in his Friar Tuck outfit, explaining the history of who-sacked-who in Spain over the past two thousand years. I still can´t seem to get the story straight. First some local tribespeople lived here. They were then sacked by the Romans, who were then sacked by the Visigoths, who were later sacked by the Moors, who were then resacked by the original Spanish who lived here. Then Napoleon came in and sacked the whole place, then the Spanish resacked it again, then Franco came into power and sacked everyone and it all just went to hell in a handbasket until he died. Just goes to show you the importance of having safe sacks. But now democracy reigns free in Toledo, and the people can rejoice and show their freedom by selling Conan the Barbarian broadswords, suits of armor and chain mail and copies of Cervante´s "Don Quijote" to the tourists now invading the village.

It´s quite easy to get lost in Toledo. None of the streets are set up in any logical design. You think you know where you´re going, but then you end up in some back alleys without any street markings, and you´re suddenly in some "Plaza de Whatever" that´s not even on the map, so you just say "to heck with it" and hang out in the shade, eating bocadillos and drinking cerveza like all the other Spaniards. You´ve got to be careful on your wanderings around town, though, or you´re liable to get run over by cars, buses or scooters. Not even their tiny sidewalks are safe. Since this is a castle town, the roads weren´t designed back in 1000 AD to accommodate motor vehicles zipping around, so you´ll find yourself ducking into doorways just to avoid the Citreon about to plow into your ass. During the daytime when all the lazy tourists are being bused up into Toledo, it becomes gridlock as the charter buses squeeze by with only inches of clearance.

But Toledo is a pretty place (at least Spain´s version...I can´t vouch for Ohio´s). Eric and I spent today wandering through the town with our full backpacks on seeing the town´s highlights. We started by checking out another town market trying to push its cheap wares onto unsuspecting tourists. We then saw some ruins where the Romans had originally placed their town meeting square, or "circus" as they called it. They had a small amphitheatre which resembled the types of ruins you´d see at Rome´s Coliseum, except on a much much smaller scale. We then found a series of escalators that takes you all the way up into Toledo so you don´t have to break a sweat. I nicknamed it the "Escalator to the Gods." I´d like to personally shake the hand of the person that came up that escalator.

Next on our agenda, we stopped at the town´s main cathedral, which is definitely a must for any tourist. Toledo used to be the center for Spain´s Catholic church, so they built this incredible cathedral which equals anything you´d see in Italy (St. Mark´s in Venice, St. Peter´s in Rome). You can see the clashing of the different artistic styles and cultural influences inside: Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Muslim, Catholic, etc. You´ll be taking tons of pictures of this place. Unfortunately, my camera just happened to die on me, so I went into photography withdrawal not being able to capture any of it. Damn Canon PowerShot. Two years of treating it well, and it craps out on me at one of the most amazing places I´ve seen. Go figure.

We finished the day by swooping past the town´s other cultural treasures--mosques, synagogues, knife shops--and then spit ourselves out on the west exit of the fortress and headed down into Toledo suburbia below. Toledo is definitely worth checking out. Just remember to wear your suit of armor inside town in case a bus decides to joust with you.