I took a day trip to Toledo, which is about 74 km away (about 45 miles). The high-speed train takes 33 minutes to get there, which isn’t bad. Even the train station is a work of art.
The station is out near the countryside, and it’s about a five-minute bus ride to one of the gates to the city.
The main plaza is the Zocodover. This town is really big on Don Quijote.
Here are pictures of the city, in no particular order. As you can tell, the city is quite old. The cathedral is very impressive from the outside; I did not go in.
The views from the city to the area below are just spectacular.
This is a museum devoted to El Greco; it’s not his house, but a representation of what it would be like if he had lived there. Unless you are a hard-core art lover (some of his work is in there), you can give this a miss without feeling guilty.
There are two old synagogues. One, the Sinagoga del Tránsito, has been turned into the Sephardic Museum. The other one, called Santa María La Blanca (I swear I am not making this up—the name was changed when the Catholics took it over and made it into a church), is no great shakes.
There are some Islamic monuments in Toledo as well, but I didn’t see them on the map, and I was tired, so I left on an earlier train for Madrid.
You see the word “Calle” everywhere (it means “street”); this is the first time I have seen it with the A inside the C.
I liked this sign for a place that rents and sells electrical bicycles, Segways, etc.