Toledo

Spain, from the spanish capital to the city of Toledo

Looking through my articles I realised that I have missed to write about one foreign country in which I have been travelling until today, namely the beautiful country of Spain.

Flying from Bucharest to Madrid

In the spring time, a couple time ago I visited Spain with a group of my closest friends. We chose to spend our city break in the core of the country, in its charming capital, Madrid. So, we pop up on a plane at Bucharest Otopeni Airport and in about 2 to 3 hours with a low business class company we were landing in Madrid, Spain.

Because we have bought the tickets in advanced we paid for our both flights an amount of 80 euros without adding a large luaggage, but just carring our backpack.

Going from Madrid to Toledo by train but passing through a jungle first

During our 4 day stay in Madrid we have visited lots of art museums and galleries that were very rich in many good artworks which we really liked seeing, but our plan was included a one trip to the historical and unique city of Toledo.

The memories about Toledo are always making me feel very happy and warm, that’s why from all of the beautiful and interesting places I got to chance to experience directly in my journey to Spain I chose to talk about this particular city.

In the third day from our trip to Madrid we went to the main railway station and bought tickets for travelling to Toledo. By the way, I have to mention here that the main train station (Atocha) in Madrid is one of the most wonderful in which I have been because it houses a tropical garden.

Inside of it there are many specific plants, birds and turtles for which a proper warm and wet cilmate has been created to keep its vegetation and fauna in good conditions. I remember that I got the feeling of passing through space. I was in the interior of a tall wall building full of nature like in the exterior world.

We took the train to Toledo and spend circa 30 minutes in a high spped train Avant which tickets cost 20 euros for both ways until we have reached the train station in the upcoming ready to be explored city. As a matter a fact, between Madrid and Toledo is a distance of 70 kilometers, the city being positioned in the south of the capital.

Of course, on the window’s train the landscapes through which we were going were very fascinating so we did got bored for siting a period in the train where all we had to do was to admire the views without having to walk endlessly like we did in the previous on the streets of the spanish capital.

A good welcoming in the train station of Toledo

After half of an hour we got down the train and immediately we found a place to visit, admire and stare at, more exactly the train station of this city.

We got fascinated by all of the small wooden details of the construction and by the specific motifs created and developed in maur style. The architectural monument was dating back to the beginning of the 19th centuryand was beautifully designed with a good taste being decorated both on the outside and inside.

The ceiling which has been created in the interior of the building left me with my mouth open. I had never seen before such perfect and well worked wooden floral decorations.

The color range was very pleasant, thus, the combination of the brown wood with the white walls and the colorful paintings on the glass were creating a relaxing atmosphere. When we had to get back to the train station for catching the train to Madrid we didn’t god bored for waiting in the station a few longer moments because we were just discovering even more from the small decorative architectural staff.

If you get a first good impression of that city, as I got about Toledo, it makes you happy and so you begin the moments of travelling with a positive energy.

To understand what I am talking about I can say that the first feeling that you get - kind of - sets the mood for the upcoming journey. In this way, there is a good possibility of having a better trip and be much more open, and with less doubts of your decision of getting to that spot.

After we took lots of photos of the train station we started walking through the streets looking back at the clock tower of the building which begun the list of such towers that we were about to see around the city. The tower was like a clue about what was to be seen in the center and historical area of Toledo.

A small history lesson about Toledo

The city we were about to visit that day was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to its large amount of well preserved historical buildings.

We didin't had a plan about which places we wanted to see in Toledo, but instead we were strolling the streets and when a monument seemed to be an interesting spot to visit also on the inside, we would enter it.

There were many little shops across the city and we could not resist to enter them and very well we did because we found out that Toledo has been a traditional sword making center since the ancient times. The city's steel was famous and desired by the Roman legions due to its high quality alloy.

Since all of the people from the group were history lovers and interested in weapons and such things, when we saw the shops with lots of various kinds of swords, we were amazed and spend a quite same time looking at the weapons and also buying small souvenir swords to always remember and bring something home from the city of Toledo.

Going up the hill to the Museum of the Army

The historical city center was situated up the hill and we had to find our way to there, a thing which was pretty easy to accomplish because the town was quite visible from far away. The first important institution that came in our path was a historical and archeological museum site named Museo del Ejército translated as The museum of the army.

Here we got actually the chance to visit the old Alcazar and its new built extension. On the ground and underground levels people could see the ruins or same of the first base fondations.

I was impressed by the enourmous collection of battle armor, swords, military medals, miniature replicas of battles, various kinds of sheeps, vehicles and autovehicles, military uniforms from different periods of time, parts of architecture and a lot more, displayed such as it showed the viewer chronologically the history of Spain and its strong army.

I think that from all of the things that were displayed the sheeps like the one in the photo above was my favorite one because I have never seen before such object represented on a large scale. I could see all of the small parts, details and how the sheep with was created. I was literally fascinated by it.

Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo

As we were getting closer and more into the city center there were so many stunning constructions and architectural elements to look at. Suddenly, a tall building appeared in front of our eyes. It was Catedral Primada Santa María de Toledo, a roman catholic church belonging to 13th century of the Middle Ages that measures in height 120 meters. How not to notice it?

What makes the cathedral so imposing and beautiful its for sure coming from the style in which the construction was raised, namely, the Gothic manner, probably one of the most spectacular architectural style.

Unfortunately, as I can remember there were so many tourists waiting in a long line to get tickets for visiting the interior of the cathedral and we decided due to that not to go inside, but just admire it from the outside. Also, the cost of the ticket was a bit high for our student budget. For example, for a complete tour we had to pay 12, 50 euros and for seeing only the museum the price was 10 euros.

We thought that it was such a sunny and enjoyable weather outside and because in the last days we've been most of the time inside museums, now we were craving a day out, in the warm spring sun and passing through all of the appealing streets and litlle paved hidden paths of the new city we were in.

We left the cathedral behind after we got enough of watching it, and started to walk in an aim of reaching the shores of the river Tajo and its bridges. Until we got where we wanted, there were other main attractions that came in our way and which we either admired from the outside or got inside of. For example, here I can mention the following:

• Jewish quarter

• The Synagogue of El Tránsito ( the most significant jewish monument of Toledo dating back to the 14th century built in the Mudéjar-style )

• Casa El Greco and its museum ( here is the house where the famous spanish painter El Greco used to live so here the visitors have the chance to see paintings and sculptures worked by the artist )

• Santa María la Blanca is an ancient synagogue that had been transformed in the 15th century in a christian church

• Iglesia de Santiago del Arrabal

• Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes

• La Muralla

We knew that we are in the Jewish neighborhood because there was a little symbol representing the a chandelier with seven arms known as "menorah" on the streets and stairs including that area.

Toledo, the city o a three religions

Judging by the multiple and the entire variety of constructions belonging to different nations, cultures and religion, Toledo developed as a multicultural city including parts created by the islamic, jewish and christian people. The combination of all of them is beautifully and harmonically done, nothing seemed to bother our eyes, but rather amazed it due to its perfect fit in the surroundings.

Speaking of that, Toledo is also a green city, an aspect which I appreciated very much. Among all of the streets and buildings there were many green spaces, the houses had nice gardens with specific vegetation and plants of which same I had not seen before like all kinds of cactus.

The Tajo river and its green mesmerizing surroundings

We reach the shores of the Tajo river. The landscape over the river was very impressive. There was this opposite high hill with green areas filled with white blossom trees and traditional houses.

Near the river and the bridge named Puente de Alcántara, a 13th century moorish construction we found a path which we followed because it seemed like it would lead us to interesting places, less crowded and more into nature. And it was actually like that, there where almost no people on this hidden path and we could enjoy better the landscapes over the high wonderful hill of the city and relax for a bit after we've been walking around all day long.

For those who want to do something much more fun and are having courage, we noticed that over the river was installed a zip line, going from one shore of Tajo to the other. Actually, before entering that path, we spend some time on the bridge too and looked at the people who were brave enough to try the long zip line.

Since it was a Sunday, there were many tourists around the city and in all of the places I have been mention in this article. I am not sure if it is like this anytime, but future travellers should know that especially if they want to visit interior of the buildings.

Conclusions

I feel like our one day trip to Toledo was definitely a success even if we spend a big amount of the time outside, strolling the old streets. I recommend people who are thinking of visiting Madrid to also add on their plan and list of places they want to see and experience the city of Toledo. I assure everybody that there will be no regrets in taking this decison. Toledo is for sure worth visiting especially by the humans who are culture, history and old things lovers because here they will find plenty of such related things to discover.