{"id":2884,"date":"2014-05-10T19:34:14","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T18:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=2884"},"modified":"2026-05-23T09:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:01:31","slug":"taking-a-turn-around-toledo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2014\/05\/10\/taking-a-turn-around-toledo\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking A Turn Around Toledo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Puente
Puente de Alcantara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leaving Aranjuez started off as a slow process; we actually went in the right direction but got stuck behind a pony and trap trotting through the roadworks and over the cobbled streets.\u00a0 On the outskirts of town, we stocked up on supplies and set off west to Toledo. \u00a0I got the giggles when Gertie, our Garmin GPS, ordered us to follow the Calle Ander Luckier; an interesting pronunciation for Andalucia.\u00a0 I think she\u2019s mangling the Spanish language more than we are!<\/p>\n

\"
The Alcazar Toledo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After nearly a complete circuit of the city on the hill, we arrived at Camping El Greco at around 12:30pm. At 1:30pm I wandered across to check out the bathroom and found that the loo wouldn\u2019t flush and no water came out of any of the taps.\u00a0 So with hands covered in soap I walked back to reception to enquire as to why we had an absence of aqua.\u00a0 The lady said \u201cAh yes. It will be on in 15 minutes\u201d.\u00a0 Two and a half hours later there was still no water. \u00a0\u201cAh yes\u201d, she said, \u201cit should<\/span> be back on this evening\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cAre you sure\u201d, I asked.\u00a0 \u201cWe hope so\u201d she said in a rather uncertain manner.\u00a0 Aaargh!\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s the most expensive campsite we\u2019ve stayed at so far and yet the swimming pool is empty and there\u2019s no water in the taps or toilets.\u00a0 Hmmm, we crossed our fingers.<\/p>\n

I whipped up a pan of Bolognese, froze half of it and we filled our tummies with a big bowl, before walking back up the trimmed tree-lined driveway to the main road.\u00a0 True to form, the 4pm bus arrived on the other side of the road, travelling in what seemed like the wrong direction for the centre of Toledo, so we ran across, paid for our tickets and then proceeded to travel out of town, around some houses and back to the bus stop that we had originally been standing at!\u00a0 Ah well, we got there in the end\u2026.<\/p>\n

The bus whisked us over the River Tajo and up to the Plaza Zocodover, a pretty central spot to start wandering around from.\u00a0 Two hours later we were really hot and thirsty, so we sat on stools at a barrel table outside the Caf\u00e9 Flores for a cold drink and then continued wandering the narrow laneways a bit more.\u00a0 Amazingly some of the streets, despite being incredibly narrow, have cars weaving through them and there are traffic lights, presumably to avoid two cars meeting head on.<\/p>\n

\"Mini
Mini sized laneway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Narrow
Narrow laneways that are definitely not designed for Eileen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

By 8pm we were done for and had made a plan for the next day, so we hopped on the bus back to the campsite.\u00a0 Thankfully the water situation was tickety boo when we got back, but it was 32\u00b0C inside Eileen, despite leaving all the blinds closed, so the trusty desk fan was pulled out of storage, all windows and doors were flung open and we sat outside for a while where it was still 25\u00b0C and waited for the inside and outside temperatures to drop before enjoying a lovely cool shower.<\/p>\n

\"Tren
Tren Turistico and trendy passenger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We ate mushrooms on toast for breakfast sitting outside, while we watched flocks of timid sparrows bouncing around us like little animated cartoon characters.\u00a0 I wish I could still bounce like they do.\u00a0 At 10am, the bus stop was a league of nations with German, Dutch and French couples all waiting to head into town, via the house viewing loop. It makes sense in a way as there is no shade on the other side, so why not sit on the bus a little longer\u2026.\u00a0 In the Plaza Zocodover we boarded the tourist train, the Tren Turistico, for a jaunt around the walls and out to a panoramic view back to the city, definitely a fun thing to do and the views are pretty wonderful.<\/p>\n

\"Panoramic
Panoramic view of Toledo over the River Tajo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Back in town we weaved our way through to the Iglesia San Ildefonso, a Jesuit church started in 1629, which seemed to be one of only a few churches in town, that doesn\u2019t have an El Greco painting inside.\u00a0 It\u2019s another huge Baroque style interior, but the main reason for going in, was to climb up the two towers for a fabulous view over the city.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t mentioned in any of the guidebooks, but we spotted the sign when sitting at our barrel the previous day and it was definitely worth it.<\/p>\n

\"View
View from the tower of the Iglesia San Ildefonso<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We continued our rambling all the way down to the outer walls for a look around two of the major gateways into the city, the Puerta de Bisagra and the Puerta de Alfonso VI, both a real jumble of architectural periods, bit Moorish, bit Mediaeval, bit Baroque, but both quite impressive.\u00a0 Lunch was calling and we were now at the base of the city and the restaurant that we fancied, was back at the top, but no worries, mate; there\u2019s an enormous escalator that cuts out a lot of climbing on the north west side of the city.\u00a0 I think it could be the first time I\u2019ve ever been on an outdoor escalator.<\/p>\n

\"
Puerta de Bisagra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was\u00a0an expensive restaurant in town selling ecological caviar, Iberic pig mask and even an almond mojo, whatever that is, but there was a\u00a0Chinese restaurant\u00a0nearby and craving something different, but not weird, for lunch,\u00a0we shuffled in to find that only one table of about thirty was actually occupied.\u00a0 It was hard to make a decision as to where to sit.\u00a0 The food wasn\u2019t brilliant, but at least it was a change and when the other table finished and left, we felt rather outnumbered by the staff, but I think they were pleased to see us.\u00a0 Back out on the pavement, the temperature was back up in the thirties and we felt we had seen all we needed in Toledo, so we meandered back to the bus stop and caught the 3pm back to Eileen.\u00a0 Both of us fell asleep in our chairs outside and only woke up when a puff of a breeze blew some dust over us.\u00a0 I think we really could get into the Spanish siesta habit.<\/p>\n

\"Puerta
Puerta del Sol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Leaving Aranjuez started off as a slow process; we actually went in the right direction but got stuck behind a pony and trap trotting through the roadworks and over the cobbled streets.\u00a0 On the outskirts of town, we stocked up on supplies and set off west to Toledo. \u00a0I got the giggles when Gertie, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8338,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884\/revisions\/8338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}