Day in Toledo

Despite a forecast for rain, today was bright. Our plans to visit Goya's House and the Visigoth museum thwarted we instead headed up the steep road into town and for coffee on the Plaza de Zocodover, that 'sloping square of uneven cobbles..' where Lee met the South African poet Roy Campbell. From Lee's description I was expecting a quiet and small plaza of cafes. It has changed somewhat, a little in appearance and a lot in character. No longer uneven cobbles, this small triangle of a plaza is now paved with smooth slabs and is the busy centre of Toledo's tourism with guides gathering their groups and others selling tickets for tours. As for coffee, we ended up in the one cafe on the plaza, located on the same side as the Burger King and the McDonalds.

Today, between walking to museums and sites in and out of the city walls, I feel I have begun to scratch the surface of what this city has to offer. We first made our way to the museum of Santa Cruz, an old medieval hospital turned into an art and archeological museum. As well as a small selection of paintings by Toledo artists (mainly El Greco) there were displays of archeological finds from the Stone Age, pre Roman, Roman, Visigoth, Muslim and Christian eras as well as a porcelain collection. I liked it: in every case there was enough to engage you but not so much as to overwhelm you.

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz

Heading uphill we next made for a tenth century former Mosque. A small building, converted to a church at some point and set in a small garden by the walls, looking north at those parts of the old city outside. Also outside the walls lay the remains of the Roman Circus (think Ben-Hur). There is not a lot to see other than a few foundation stones but it gives a sense of scale and parts sit in its own park surrounded by a sea of green and yellow, of grass and wild flowers.

Mosque

Looking north

Circus

Circus

We walked back to the old town and ate a late lunch in the restaurant where we had been unable to have dinner yesterday. Afterwards though, the combination of food, wine and cycling seemed to catch up with me and I headed back to explore the Spanish tradition of siesta leaving Beatriz to explore alone. By the time I woke up and she returned, rain and thunderstorms had rolled in confining us to the flat. They did not cease until late into the evening and so once again we prepared our own dinner.