#spain Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

December 15, 2025December 16, 2025

Exploring Toledo

as I mentioned in the previous post on Toledo it is definitely one of the “must see“ cities in Spain. It’s a very short train ride from Madrid which is more expensive so you may want to stay here in a very beautiful old town atmosphere and take a day trips into Madrid. I stayed in Grecco which is right above the gelato shop so on your way back to the very comfortable room you can stop in front and have a delicious gelato.

Old buildings exploring Toledo — the beautiful old buildings are everywhere

Towers exploring Toledo — There are a lot of little towers all over the city

Cheap food — This is a really good deal for a meal which you can have at the university cafeteria

Arab architecture — The Moorish architecture is everywhere

Morning breakfast — My favorite coffee shop for breakfast had an addition of a tostada which was a potato baked like a bread, very filling

Local designs which you can find in many many shops in the area

Cathedral — Fixing up one of the cathedrals

University sign — The sign outside the university

Beautiful crest — On top of the university entrance there is this beautiful crest with angels

Sword making shop — Swords and knives make very popular shops in this town. You will find them everywhere. I guess this guy will make one to your specification

Narrow — Many of the streets are very narrow

Synagogue — I was staying in the Jewish quarter so you can enjoy visiting the synagogues which had been converted twice, once to Islam and once to Christianity

Town entrance — One of the entrances to the town

One of the gates. It’s important to note that Toledo is on a hill and so there is very little flat ground. You are either walking up or you are walking down

Front garden — I snuck a view into someone’s front garden

A church spire — One of the beautiful church spires

Wine with cigar — One day I sat in the Park area, smoked a cigar and drank wine out of my flask

Vegan lunch — A tasty vegetable salad with a vegan sausage

Small church — A small local church built on an ancient foundation

Pipe organ — And with a small pipe organ

Old found — Layers in the old foundation

Ancient church — Remnants of the ancient church

Church courtyard — The main church courtyard

Monkey on a toilet — The comment for this was a monkey sitting on a toilet complaining. Evidently the architect had some sense of humor

Strange animal — This is a very weird animal

A human lodged in the stone — A human lodged headfirst in the stone

Entranceway decoration — Beautiful entranceway decoration

Courtyard — The courtyard with a different effigies

A corpse — Is this something they should have in a church? Maybe so since it revolves around a death

Mango on strawberry — Mangoon top of strawberry

December 12, 2025December 12, 2025

Toledo Jewish Quarter

there is a very interesting story about the Jewish quarter in Toledo indicating how powerful these people were in the Gothic and Moorish periods of Spanish history before the people took it back from the Moors. It seems the Islamic groups lived peacefully and with tolerance with the different religious groups but that was not to continue after the Christians took the territory from the Moors. The result was the inquisition in which non-Christians were obligated to convert or leave or worse. This area of the city is expensive and an extremely interesting and intricate part of Toledo. Visiting here is an absolute must if you come to the city.

Inside a synagogue — Inside one of the synagogues

The Jewish quarter in Toledo — This is a map of the city high on a hill. There is almost no flat area in the city so you’re either walking uphill or downhill.

The Sephardic people — The Jewish people who came to this area are called the Sephardic people. During the inquisition and after they moved out of Spain in large groups to the east and some all the way to Russia.

Gelato shop — Next to my accommodations at Grecco Rooms (very reasonably priced) was a gelato shop. If I remember correctly this one was coffee on top of chocolate mint.

December 5, 2025December 5, 2025

Go to Cuenca

when you go to Spain make sure you go to Cuenca. It is a world heritage site for a reason. You go up by bus to the castle uphill or you can walk though it is quite a distance and could be tiring depending upon your degree of fitness. Walking back down to the town is a piece of cake and a very interesting stroll. There are also a few ways to go down through the narrow streets which you should probably try. By bus by train from Madrid it will take about an hour and a half so if you leave early in the morning you can spend the day there and then come back in the afternoon or evening but it’s a nice little town to stay overnight. I didn’t find a bunch else except for the journey up to the castle and the churches to visit up there. There are quite a few restaurants in coffee shops along the way but they seem to be mostly catering to the tourist crowd so they be judged as tourist restaurants. As you visit this area you will see a beautiful landscape and buildings right on cliff sides that will definitely be worth a few photos.

Bridgeview — Walking across the bridge to the museum

Looking at the town go to Cuenca — I thought the colors here looking down into the town were very interesting

Monastery go to Cuenca — The monastery in the middle of the valley which is now a museum

Different paths go to Cuenca — There are many different trails off the roadside that you can take to see the beautiful scenery from different points of view

Entranceway — The main gate and entranceway into the cathedral and Castle area

Narrow streets — Some of the road up there is very narrow so they have a traffic light to allow cars one way and then stop to wait for cars coming the opposite way

Short doorway — This door to the building must’ve been made a long time ago, for very short people

A large statue of Jesus — Monumento al Sagrado Corazón de Jesus

Canyon view — You can see how the water washed away the land to create a beautiful canyon

Old cathedral doors — These stores to the cathedral are very old

Cathedral entranceway — The entranceway to the cathedral

Vespa Shop serving alcohol — I just thought this was interesting that the Vespa service shop is offering an Aperol spritz for €5.9. This is the first motorcycle service shop I have seen that serves alcohol.

Cliffside buildings — Buildings on the cliffside

Horse steps — What I learned in Bologna, Italy was that these long steps were created for people on horseback

A nun — This nun is obviously giving directions to the kids

Tourist site — Even though it was cold there were quite a few tourists mailing around

Valley view — Just a nice view of the cliffs and the valley and the tall trees that look like bushes

Good soup — It was kind of like a Spanish version of the Chinese “egg drop soup”. The wine was very tasty and the bread was fresh.

Raw beef — The food looks good but the meat was raw on the inside and way too chewy to eatbut I had them cook it a second time. It’s probably best to eat down in the town in a place that is not so touristy

Restaurant façade — A nice old restaurant façade

And of course you have to be able to see a Ferrari

Follow the narrow path — It’s more interesting on the way down to follow the narrow paths rather than the main road

Interesting window — I just thought this window was a very interesting shape

Sushi restaurant — The name of the shop does not exactly make me feel comfortable with the food

My last photo with the backpack — Everything I own is in these bags and I am without a home. But recently I decided to get a small suitcase with wheels. There is a limit to carrying 14 kg every other day.

November 18, 2025November 18, 2025

Visit the Prado museum

when you are in Madrid make sure to visit the Prado museum since it is the premier national classical art museum. What you will be saying is about 95% paintings many of them by very famous artists and in about 5% statues and figurines.

Museum front — The front of the museum on the Goya side

Goya statue Prado Museum — Obviously the national art hero

Mona Lisa version Prado museum — This was very interesting. It is one of the initial versions of the Mona Lisa by da Vinci. The explanation is the background was changed and some other things were modified. It’s interesting to know that there is more than one complete version.

Nun Prodo museum — This nun is obviously to be obeyed completely

Painting — Woman with a Dove
1610-20. Oil on canvas
This painting displays the same stylistic characteristics as works by an anonymous painter who worked in Rome in Caravaggio’s circle and whose activity is documented between I6ro and 1620. Woman with a Dove forms a pair with Man with a Rabbit (Madrid, Palacio Real) by
the same artist.

Strozzi painting — Saint Veronica
1620-1625. Oil on camess
Veronica dried Christ’s face on the way to Calvary, and the impression remained on her cloth. Strozzi was a Capuchin friar and painted this work in his native city of Genoa before his permanent move to Venice in a632.
The painting entered the collection of Isabella Famese. wife of Philip V, as by Velázquez. by Bernardo Strozzi

In the next few paintings you will see people with beautiful eyes looking up. We all know what this means but I find it very interesting that humans are so enamored with the sky and what they did not know at this time.

Painting looking up — Guido Reni (1575-1642). The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin
c. 1602-3. Oil on panel
This scene, which Reni painted on other occasions between approximately 1596 and 1607, combines the subjects of the Assumption, Glorification and Coronation of the Virgin, the latter carried out by two angels. Other angels surround Mary, playing musical instruments in her honour and singing her praises. The physical types and earthy palette recall Reni’s master Annibale Carracci.

You have to eat something. This food was delicious.

September 12, 2023September 12, 2023

Bullfight in Valencia Spain

I am not a fan of bullfights like Hemingway but I wanted to introduce my friend to this part of Spanish culture. The link below explains the participants of the bullfight in detail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-style_bullfighting#:~:text=the%2019th%20century.-,Participants,cuadrilla%20or%20team%20of%20bullfighters.

The floor matadors with their capes to be greeted by the crowd

A visitor from Mexico proudly displays his flag

I am not sure what these numbers and symbols indicate but it is brought out before each fight

The picador is loosening the shoulder muscles

The matador throws his hat to someone in the crowd

September 6, 2023February 18, 2024

Valencia Spain

Reminds me of some photos I have seen of architecture in Mexico

Italian restaurants are everywhere and you can find good pizza in many places

Even this powerful cat (MANNEKI NEKO) turn welcoming you to eat ramen and assistant cat wishing you peace can be found in the city

The beaches are very long and the water is pretty clean

This was redesigned but originally was the local governors palace and offices

The ceiling here and in the next photo are the original parts of this room which were found some other place in the city and refitted here

Looking at the floor at a good angle gives a very nice perspective

This entrance was large enough to allow people on horseback inside though I don’t know that really happened but it is something that I learned at a palace in bologna Italy

Paella is the local food, may be considered the fast food of Spain but nice to have when you want something simple

Getting their hair wet on a very warm day at the local fountain

August 10, 2023August 10, 2023

Madrid

At a taco restaurant. The “spicy” sauce on the right of the small sauce tray of 4 was very spicy. We mixed them to suit our taste.

Musicians entertaining us. They are everywhere. Very nice to hear the more traditional music around town.

The lady you see chased me away before i could get in a better position. She set this up for money, of course.

This sunny day umbrella guy wouldn’t move. Maybe he was expecting rain to fall soon only on him.

This was an “all you can eat” buffet called ….. look at the napkin. The gazpacho was almost as good as my mothers so we visited 2 times.

August 10, 2023August 22, 2023

Flamenco in Madrid

In Madrid, La Cueva De Lola is a small, unassuming, movie picturesque bar to view flamenco dancing. The show quality/price ratio was surprisingly high so i can t recommend it for an evening out. But the sangria there is not really recommendable so try to order something else for your “included” beverage in the €25 price.

August 9, 2023August 9, 2023

Madrid Royal Palace

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace_of_Madrid

He was playing the brass rubbing instrument

Juan Carlos, in the middle, abdicated for his son on the right.

A Stradivarius. There is even a Stradivarius bass on display

August 8, 2023August 8, 2023

San Sebastián

Very close to the French border, in Spain, and on the Atlantic, this town is a premium priced beach (by Spain standards) easy going and lovely little town. The people are Basque as is the food in some restaurants. Going back into France was slightly tricky since the train booking sites for France are not great for cross border trips especially if you have a Eurail pass as we did. Getting only the seat reservation (the rest free on the pass) was tricky, going through a third party site. But just relax and enjoy San Sebastián.

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