Segovia to Toledo (Friday, October 10th)

It was still raining when we headed to the train station in Segovia this morning, so we were somewhat soaked when we got there, after waiting 10 minutes for the bus.  But we had time to relax with a coffee and toast before boarding our train to Madrid.  Madrid has two major railway stations - Chamartin and Puerta Atocha, and there are no through trains. So....we took a fast train to Chamartin, then a suburban train from there to Puerta Atocha, and then a fast train from there to Toledo.

The train from Segovia to Madrid reached speeds of 249 km/h, and took less than half an hour.

Once in Chamartin station it took us a while to figure out where to buy tickets for the suburban trains, but 45 minutes after arriving in Madrid we were at Puerta Atocha station, which was a mass of people. We managed to find a quiet spot to sit, eat lunch, and watch the masses heading in all directions.  Hopefully none of us contracted Ebola while in Madrid!  There is a really nice tropical garden in the Atocha station, with a turtle pond in it....something to ease the monotony of the wait.  

We then had a 40 minute fast train ride to Toledo, where the weather was fine and sunny, and the 2 Km walk to our hotel was relatively straightforward, despite the hopeless directions taken from Google maps.  

Our hotel room is spacious compared to the last two, and is located about a 15 minute walk from the old city wall.  I think that the bathroom here may be larger than the whole room in Segovia.  

Toledo is a city of 84,000 people, with 10,000 of them living in the hill-top old walled city.  It has a long history of peaceful cohabitation between the Christians, Muslims and Jews who inhabit the city.  There seems to be a church, mosque, or synagogue on almost every street corner.  Could this be the origin of Holy Toledo?

After freshening up we walked up to the old city, and explored the streets, some of which we saw several times, but not intentionally, as the streets are a real rabbit warren of twists and turns, alleys, and plazas, and the street signs are not always helpful.  Some of the streets that the cars are driving on are less than 7 feet wide between the walls, so you would need to be be very aware of your vehicle's dimensions and which streets are wide enough for it. Needless to say we saw several people driving them at speed while talking on their cell phones. I guess they are used to it. We saw several vehicles in tight squeezes, and one which must have been a little wider than the street. 

All of our meandering (some might say that we were lost) did cause us to delay eating until after 8 pm, by which time all of the restaurants were serving dinner.  There is a first time for everything!

We chose to eat in an Arab restaurant which is built into the Cristo de la Cruz gate, and I actually ate with my feet inside the city wall and my butt outside the wall.  How is this possible you ask?  The restaurant has a glass panel in the floor, over the 1000 year old wooden gate, which is locked in the raised position.  My chair straddled the gate and I could look down and see the gate and road below me.  Marlene was in seventh heaven with the falafels, couscous and egg plant, and I was happy to have some chicken and lamb.  Randy and Marty?, well they went along for the ride. Such a pleasant change from cheese on a bun.  

But now it is time to get some sleep, so that we can explore the old town in more detail tomorrow.