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"That Used To Be One Of My Favourite Songs", My Travelogue to Spain, December of 2010: Day Seven

Series Four, Volume Three:
Monday, January 31, 2011 at 8:08pm

DAY SEVEN:

martes 28 diciembre:

¡Viaje a Tolédo!

We were up before sunrise and had the opportunity to see an interesting facet of life in Madrid. For the past couple of days I’d wondered how it seemed to be such a clean city when the inhabitants threw all their rubbish outside on the sidewalks, even if it was in somewhat organized piles. It seemed that there should be marauding bands of rodents and cockroaches but this was not so. Granted, the city never seems to sleep, but between 5:00 and 7:00 in the morning, it takes a little cat-nap. At that time, the limpieza (city street-cleaners) attack the streets with impressive teamwork. After collecting the trash, they sweep and then power-wash the sidewalks and pedestrian streets. Oddly, watching these crews work was one of the more interesting parts of the vacation.

We trekked up Calle de Precipio and arrived at the bus station in plenty of time to check-in. Luckily, someone on the morning crew there spoke excellent english and pointed us to a little café called “Oskar” before it was time to board the bus. Admittedly, maybe I’ve over-used the adjective “beautiful” in this travelogue. The thing is though, in fairness to the city of Madrid, it just fits so well in so many regards.

This was a beautiful diner.

Perhaps it’s the availability of finer building supplies,

or maybe it’s because many of the structures hail from eras when it was the standard to use marble, travertine and granite for almost everything.

The point is, I took a lot of detail shots of the walls and counters and everything else because it’s quite uncommon for that level of craftsmanship to be found in everyday American architecture and interior design.The food at Oskar’s was great of course. I stuck with my usual espresso and o.j. and had some toast-melt thing that was very yummy.

The bus ride to Toledo took about an hour or so. We stopped at a little gift shop/café then headed into the heart of the city. Quick history lesson: Toledo is one of the oldest cities in Spain which has existed under variations of its name since the Bronze Age. It’s truly an awe-inspiring place to walk around. During the Roman Empire, it was a main commercial and administrative center in what was then the province of Tarraconensis. After that, it was the capital city of Visigoth Spain, and then the Moors conquered it in the 8th century. For quite a while it was this big, unified cultural center where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in relative harmony. But, we’re humans, so that’s not going to last.

Later, Alphonso VI of Castile conquered the city, although unlike normal conquests, they didn’t pillage and destroy every damn thing in sight. Toledo continued its role as a cultural center and its Arab libraries underwent a massive translation project by Arab and Jewish scholars to convert the texts to Latin and Spanish. During the walking tour, we had the opportunity to visit the Santa María la Blanca, the oldest intact synagogue in Europe.

Toledo then became the capital of Spain for a little while, but soon after the Spanish court was moved to Valladolid and then Madrid. That turned out to be good news-bad news. On one hand, it was an economic kick-in-the-nuts, on the other hand, Toledo retained a lot of its heritage and wasn’t overdeveloped. One of the things that I found really curious about Toledo was that as we were walking along, there seemed to be a distinct pattern: Knife shop, tapas bar, gift shop, hostel, repeat. The other three I’d become accostomed to, but there were knives and swords and daggers and rapiers and armor and shields and more swords, everywhere. Seriously, if there ever is a zombie invasion, I’m putting my chips on Toledo.

When we asked our tour guide about the over-abundance of knife shops, she explained that metal-smithing has been Toledo’s economic base since Roman times. During the Moorish rule and later during the Reconquista, the guild of sword-makers played a huge role in the economy, and then in the 15th and 17th century the industry experienced a huge boom. If you needed a sword, Toledo was the place to get the best of the best in all of Europe.

We also visited the Museo Victorio Macho which overlooks the Tajo River atop Tarpeya Rock. Simply an amazing place. It also houses the Toledo Royal Foundation which holds a lot of cultural events. Here’s a small selection of stuff in the courtyard and inside the exhibit:

The walking tour lasted about three hours on a very brisk pace through Toledo. Again, I could have hung out and walked around there for a week, but before long, we loaded up and returned to Madrid. Upon our return, the four of us immediately went to an Italian restaurant called DiBocca’s.

Not a bad place, there are several of them around Madrid. Our waitress was less than enthusiastic about her job but the meal was fantastic.

As we walked back to our place there was a mariachi band in the Puerta del Sol and many of the spectators were in the mood to dance; it was a pretty cool scene.

I was getting a little tired, but throughout the trip, I slept as little as humanly possible for a number of reasons. Dad and I stopped long enough for a bathroom break and then we headed back out. We wandered into a curio shop and one of the storekeepers nearly broke my fingers as I leaned toward an ancient typewriter for sale. We stopped back at the apartment and Barb joined us then the three of us hiked East and made a big loop back towards our neighborhood. You know that feeling when you first get the aches and your head gets a bit swimmy, and you tell yourself, This is not me getting sick, I’m just tired. A few hours later, the sensation is reanalyzed and you affirm, Okay fine, it’s a sniffle, NOT a cold. I do not have a cold. I’m on vacation and I’m not going to get a cold. And then, a short while later, something truly horrible comes out of your nose. At this point, one’s perspective may shift to, Maybe I’m a little bit sick. But this is NOT going to stop me...I should pick up some cough drops.

Around 9:00p.m. that night, the bullshit was officially over. Caitlin asked if I was getting sick as we walked to the restaurant and I replied, “Maybe...yeah.” Still, my appetite was intact and this was my introduction to paella. Mine was con pulpo and the octopus was like eating steak, not rubbery in the least.

There was a small introspective debate just how rude it might be received if I were to lick the plate, but in the end, the bread served to savor every little last bit. I really am going to get a paella pan and learn how to make this stuff.

We walked off our meal for an hour or two and returned to the apartment. While we were out, encountered a few more peculiarities of Madrid. First, when it gets close to Christmas and New Years, the plazas are also filled with vendors selling multi-colored wigs and crazy hats of every imaginable design. In an environment, which is already exciting and highly visually stimulating, this helps to provide the imagery of a Dr. Seuss book gone wrong, in a good way. Barb and Caitlin got into the spirit and found a few for themselves as well.

Two very cool things we saw that night: First, the motorcycle. Near the Plaza Mayor, there was a line of motorcycles and scooters secured along the sidewalk, and I saw something which almost made me walk into a lamp post again for the second time during the trip.

This beautiful girl is a Royal Enfield.

http://www.royalenfield.com/default.aspx

My, my. This is on now on the top of my Christmas list.

Note to street performers in the U.S.: You need to seriously step up your game. Check this out:

This guy put forth a considerable amount of effort; he got a few euros out of me.

As we climbed the spiral staircase, which seemed to have more steps than usual, I grumbled to myself, “Well hell. I am getting sick.

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