#toledo Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

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.

Aqueduct exploring Toledo — Actually this is Segovia. Once you get off the bus from the station you will have the aqueduct right in front of you for a great photo

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

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.

Tag: #toledo

Exploring Toledo

Toledo Jewish Quarter

Share this:

Share this: