Sweet Odyssey: Shopping Day in Toledo

Continuing the Spain Trip story...

From Cuenca we drove to Toledo, which was another 3 hours of driving. Toledo is a Spanish city that is well known for its three cultures where Christians, Jews and Arabs settled there since a long time ago and therefore there are many historical and cultural things to see there. In fact, it is a UNESCO's World Heritage Site because of the mix of cultures and historical monuments.

Ok, so we had those many things to see and do in Toledo but we ended up only went to the Cathedral. We spent quite a while inside the Cathedral immersing ourselves with the history of the church, the rooms and of course, the paintings. Toledo Cathedral has quite an extensive painting works by El Greco, Lucas Jordan, and many others in the sacristy room. Too bad, photo taking is not allowed in this church.

I was very tired myself after driving for 3 hours. There were so many roads under constructions that I had to drive fast and slow, fast and slow on the highway. I'm not a driver person. To me, driving takes up a lot of energy because I have to use my full concentration when I'm driving. So, when in the Cathedral, I was resting and kind of half asleep for a bit.

After the Cathedral, we walked down the twisting cobblestoned lanes of this medieval old town. And without any planning, we suddenly were in a rush doing present shopping. My sister who we would meet the next day was having her birthday in a few days and we had yet got her anything. So we were busy in and out the shops in the old town until dinner time. I bought her a Damascene bangle and my friend bought her the matching necklace. They were handcrafted by the shop owner (search 'Damascene' in Wikipedia and you will find the clear explanation). It's a beautiful craft and Toledo is the place for this. I like it a lot that I bought a Damascene necklace for myself too. Another items that I noticed were sold in many shops in Toledo are swords. Apparently, Toledo is famous for its swords although they are not my kind of souvenir.

At dinner time, we went to a restaurant, Adolfo Coleccion, which was recommended by a travel book that my friend borrowed from a library. We only had a few tapas as we found the food there was quite pricey. The waiter recommended us to try Menchego cheese. He said this was the best cheese in the world. He also recommended us a very, very nice cava (Spanish sparkling wine) which when asked he said the price was only €12 a bottle. I have to say we had a very good time enjoying the nice food and cava there. I also have to agree that the Menchego cheese IS the best cheese in the world (I still buy it every now and then from the local supermarket here in London). And when the bill came, we were surprised that the cava was €40 instead of €12. And the waiter was nowhere to be found. But we just let it go and paid for it. I think it's probably the cava that made us let that go. We were still happy and even laughing about it on the way back to the hotel.

Although I didn't see much of Toledo, I really enjoyed the day we spent together there. There's just so much to see in this city and one day is definitely not enough. So Toledo is on my list of cities to come back to in the future.

I didn't take any photos when I was in Toledo as my camera was giving me a false message about flat battery and my battery charger was with my sister whom I was to meet the next day. The only photos I took in Toledo were the photos of the view of the city across the Tagus River. It was the next day and we were on the way to Avila. I couldn't stand not taking photos of the nice scenery. Then I saw that the message of flat battery was gone and my camera was perfectly fine. I didn't know why it was showing me the false message before. So most of the photos below were a mixture of photos taken by my friends: AW, JK and HM. Thanks guys!