May 9
Things did not start out great in Toledo, my second city. I took the train from Madrid to Toledo. When I got there, I learned that I would not be able to take a train directly to Seville in two days. I would have to train back to Madrid, then train to Seville. I didn't have enough cash on me to pay for a reduced fare ticket, so I had to pay over $100 by credit card, plus get hit with a foreign transaction fee by MasterCard.
I took a bus to the center of town and went to an ATM to get Euros. Nightmare! I couldn't get any cash. I tried another bank's ATM - no cash. It was a Sunday and the banks weren't open. I had enough Euros to get me through to Monday, but I started to panic. What if I couldn't get any Euros the rest of my three weeks in Spain?! I looked for an Internet place so I could call Fidelity, which I use as my bank, but the Locutorios didn't open until later.
So I checked into the hotel, and went out to enjoy Toledo since there was nothing I could do at that moment to resolve my cash problem. Toledo is a city built on a hill, so there was a lot of uphill and downhill walking. I went to the Sinagoga de El Transito, one of the few synagogues to withstand the Inquisition in 1492.
The narrow streets in Madrid were nothing compared to the alleys in Toledo. I could almost spread my arms and touch buildings on either side of the street.
Finally I found a Locutorio and called Fidelity. I sounded really upset, and the agent was able to get someone on the line with me from the bank that services Fidelity. On a Sunday! She said that my account looked fine on her end, my money was not blocked, and there were no recent rejections for my account. She couldn't do anything for me. I left and went to a third ATM, and lo and behold, I was able to get Euros. What a relief!
Feeling much better, I walked around until I found a great-looking little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. I sat in the bar area and had a wonderful glass of Spanish wine, enjoyed the best, most tender green olives in tomato sauce with onions I've ever had, and listened to some great old recorded smoky American jazz. My main dish was ensalada de churrasco, a steak salad that was to die for, with carmelized onions.
Toledo is known for a few things: marzipan (an almond candy), knives, swords and guns. I can attest to the marzipan. It is delicious. I thought that I would never again have the chance to buy a really great chef knife at a decent price, so I splurged and bought one. I have been very happy with it. I also bought one for my friend, Patty, who was overseeing my condo during my absence.
I saw my first cathedral in Toledo. What an immense structure! The money that went into building it and adorning it in ornate gold and jewels could have fed hundreds or thousands of people for years. In the room with photos of Spanish cardinals, I couldn't help but wonder how many of those men were child molesters. I am such a cynic. Or a realist.
A great attraction that wasn't in the guide books was the Centro Cultural San Martin. I got free entrance to this bank-sponsored museum, which had an exhibition on nudes - paintings, photos and sculptures. It was the best thing I saw in Toledo.
I took some side streets and ended up walking up a very steep hill. There was a grand view of a couple of buildings. Then I was so tired, I hopped on a bus, hoping it would bring me back to the center of town. As it turned out, after turning three short corners, we arrived in the center.
At only 6:35pm, I took a hot bath and crawled into bed, tired from walking the hills. I listened to lovely classical music on TV, and wrote in my travel journal. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any white noise TV stations for the rest of my trip, so some nights I slept, and some nights ambient noise kept me awake.
May 10
I was up bright and early, eating an apple pastry with cafe con leche. The Museo de Santa Cruz was my first stop. It is a museum about local history. I saw a retrospective of tile-making through the ages and learned about the history of lower Toledo.
It was another day of walking in the rain, up and down hills, taking narrow streets and alleys to see where they went. Stores were open today, so I stopped in to see what was in fashion. In Toledo, it seems they sell either teeniebopper or matronly styles. I bought earrings and a necklace, just cheap costume jewelry.
For lunch, I stopped at Adolfo, a hip, modern place. While listening to Katy Perry sing, I Kissed a Girl, I had a yummy glass of Syrah wine made locally, and an appetizer of toasted bread crumbs sauteed in olive oil with chorizo. I like to order local food, but I made a bad mistake with the half partridge and discolored beans disk (sounds more appetizing in Spanish, judías pochas con 1/2 perdiz). It was my only regrettable meal in Spain. I thanked the bird for giving its life, especially for such a terrible tasting dish that I couldn't finish.
I checked my email at the Arab-run Locutorio, then had tea at an outdoor cafe, while listening to American music. American music is everywhere!
I could easily have spent only one day in Toledo, especially given the rain and cold and only intermittent sun and so few things to see that interested me.
I tried to find the restaurant from the day before, but it had disappeared. I couldn't get back to that alley. I wanted lamb chops, and this was the city for meat. I went back to the restaurant where I had tea, and ordered the lamb chops for dinner. They were tasty, but nothing special. The wine was good, though.
The food may not have been the best, but the people-watching was very interesting. First, there was an overweight, stressed-out mother pushing a carriage with a boy of 1.5 years, which is a difficult chore over the cobblestone streets and cracked sidewalks. Her 7-year-old ADHD daughter was prancing about, running off then coming back, not always finding her mother again. They came out of the Chinese store, a big pulperia that sold everything from cosmetics to housewares to potatoes, and the girl was crying loudly and throwing a fit. Clearly she wanted something inside that store that her mother didn't get for her. The mother talked to her, but the girl kept making a scene - all this right across from my outdoor table. The mother pushed the carriage up an alley; they girl eventually followed. Five minutes later they returned and went back into the store. I could see a long line formed at the cash register. In about three minutes the mother, daughter and carriage emerged from the store and walked to the corner. They could not have stood in line to pay for a purchase. The mother took something out from a compartment of the carriage and bent, with her back toward me, over the girl. A few seconds later, the girl was hopping and prancing very happily, and went over to a car's side view mirror to admire the dark maroon lipstick that her mother had applied to her lips. She stood in front of the mirror a long time, missing the direction that her mother had taken with the carriage. When the girl had ogled herself enough, she went looking and calling for her mama. She entered the Locutorio, where I knew her mother had passed on her way to another street. But then the mother came back to my area, calling for her daughter. They met up again in front of the store. The mother went in yet again, picked up a lollipop, unwrapped it, and give it to the boy in the carriage. Then the three of them left the area.
I was still sitting at my table, sipping my wine, when I saw two guys in their late 20s arrive at the store. The one with hair went inside, while the one with the shaved head except for an island of long curls and a strip of bloodied stitches overlaying his left front lobe, and dirty plaster casts on both his arms, waited outside with their two dogs. I am not making this up. The mutts blocked the store entrance, waiting for their companion in the long line. A woman, I'm guessing Muslim because of her head-to-toe covering (not a burqa), wanted to leave the store, but she was afraid of the dogs. Petrified, is more like it. She looked around, obviously nervous, hoping to find the dogs' owner, but no one came to her air. The injured companion wasn't looking in, so he didn't know that his dogs were causing problems. I thought of going over to help her since I wasn't afraid of the dogs, my body even twitched to move towards her, but I stayed put to watch how the scene would play out. She would take a step toward the street, then back up, step then back up again. Finally, she stepped onto the street, eyes glued on the dogs, who could not have been less interested in her, then she hurried away.
The final interesting thing was two men wearing accordions on their backs stopped in front of the store and had a smoke with another guy. I had not seen any accordions so far on my trip and thought the scene was interesting enough to take a picture of them.
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