Toledo

And not the one in Ohio. Although, while in Toledo, the medieval capital of the Spanish kingdom of Castille, we did pass Toledo Ohio Street. Apparently they're sister cities. But so are Toledo and Corpus Christi according to Wikipedia. I digress.

Toledo is 20 minutes from Madrid, so during our recent trip, we took the high speed train to Spain's most famous walled city. It's a beautiful place, set on a tall hilltop, overlooking the vast plains of central Spain. It had been the chief city of the Iberian peninsula for millennia, passing from Roman rule to the Visigoths, then to the Moors before finally returning to Spanish rule around a thousand years ago.

We arrived just before noon, so our first order of business after walking the mile or so from the train station up into the city was finding lunch. Our guide book mentioned a place that was popular with blue collar workers on their lunch breaks, so we decided to check it out. We made a good decision because for eight euros each, we got wine, bread, an appetizer, a main entree and a dessert. It was also fun to eat lunch in a place where we were the only tourists and no one spoke English. Luckily, our use of Portanhol (Spanishified Portuguese) was enough to get by.

After lunch, we did a walking tour of the city. It was fun to wind our way through tiny medieval streets. Toledo is known for having Muslim, Jewish and Christian influences, which was evident in the architecture. The old mosque was converted to a church after the Spanish reconquest and the synagogues are nothing more than museums, but it still maintains some of its charm. Toledo was also the home of Miguel Cervantes, who wrote Don Quixote. We pose with him here.