Toledo

Toledo!  The medieval town that still has old bridges and a wall running around its borders.  It's a place with a lot of history attached, and where Jews, Muslims and Christians coexisted peacefully for many years, despite wars and reconquerings.  It also boasts the artist El Greco as one of its most famous inhabitants.  It's also part of La Mancha, where Don Quixote is famous for saber-rattling about, and they had a whole trail as well as a lot of figurines.

The first place we came out in was this old Muslim building which serves as the train station.  It has a lot of lovely stained glass and a tiled floor that we shortly found was typical of the period. It's almost a tourist attraction in itself.

Next came the hike into Toldeo.  It's not very far, but it is up a lot of stairs once you cross the old bridge over the river to get into the city.  But the views you get along the way are worth it.

And I swear, H knows people everywhere.  We no sooner struggle our way up the city stairs and across the street to the main square then he grabs hold of a policeman and starts chattering away.  Apparently they knew one another from summers when they were kids, and hadn't seen one another for 15 years.  But his friend was able to give us a quick lowdown on some places to eat, which was great.

There was a lot of walking around the city to see the sights, which were mostly old cathedrals and churches and mosques converted into churches after the Muslims were kicked out in favor of Christianity.  Down by the river, they had the ruins of some old Muslim baths, where hot springs had to be.  We also wandered into the Jewish quarter to see the building which had been mocked up as El Greco's home, which I wouldn't have minded living in.  We also stopped by a couple of convents, one where they hand-made jewelry inlayed with gold and another cloistered convent where they sold marzipan.  Buying some of that from a nun was an interesting experience, seeing that you're not allowed to actually see the nun.  They sit on the other side of the wall and you open a door in the wall to hear and talk to them.  Then they spin your order around on a lazy Susan, and you take it and spin your money back to them.  What I most liked about this was that it was entirely based on trust that people wouldn't take the marzipan and then not pay.  Because it's not like they could chase after you, either.

By then, it was time to grab some lunch before heading back to the train.  We made our way back through the narrow streets (at one point, H put out his arms and found that he could practically touch both side walls at once) and H guided us to a place his policeman friend had recommended, El Trébol.  His friend said that it had been a great bar even before the owner had wanted to expand it and discovered the ruins of a roman-esq bath feeding off the hot springs that were once there.  It's set up now with a glass floor so you can examine the ruins under your feet as you eat.

The recommended menu item here was La Bomba, which H assured me was traditional Spanish cuisine.  It's basically a ball of meat covered in potato, which is then fried in breadcrumbs and split in half, served with a dollop of garlicky mayo and ketchup.  Pretty fantastic.  Though when I got home and was telling the family about my adventures, the mother swore up and down that she'd never heard of it before.  This obviously forced us to look it up, which proved even more interesting because of the dish's background.  It was created in Barcelona during the Spanish civil war and actually was modeled after the round, fuse lit bombs that were used during the fighting of the time.  It was also usually accompanied by a spicy red sauce and a line of mayo that was supposedly the lit fuse.  Isn't history fascinating sometimes?