Atocha Station
It seems Toledo was a popular destination today. We could not get train until well into the afternoon. I killed time reading while Christian went off for a bit back to the hotel to get his book. There is a large tropical garden right in middle of the hall. What a wonderful use of an open space. Credit to the person who came up with the idea. While on holiday, I had picked up the book "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. A thoroughly interesting read; I took some time to read this while waiting. If you find yourself traveling through Spain, Portugal or France and looking for books in English check out FNAC. FNAC is something like the Virgin Megastore; FNAC sells books, music, computer, DVD's etc...
Wikipedia entry for Atocha station
Toledo
We took in some of the sights of Toledo. The city is situated on top of a hill. There is a massive cathedral and we had a look in; . I wondered how many people must be involved in just keeping such a place clean and functioning. We saw some painting by the famous El Greco. He had an interested and quite stylized way of depicting human form; I thought it was almost abstract. The figures would be very tall and thin in proportion.
The cathedral is absolutely massive. I was quite impressed by one feature that was high up; it was an alcove filled with musical instruments. You cannot take photos in Cathedral but fortunately, there are some on the web-site below.
Photo Gallery for the Cathedral
Toledo is a Unesco world heritage site. I have been to 2 Unesco sites now; the other one was Colonia in Uruguay.
We also did another tour by a tram; this was an truck pulling a series of cars behind it. The commentary was quite macabre at times talking about how people who have committed suicide for love and so on. One fact, that came up was that Pelicans will rip off their own own flesh to feed their young. I had never heard such a thing before. Christian and I looked at each and went 'what?' when we heard that. This one of the few days on holiday, where we got rained on. And it was torrential at times. But that made the day even more interesting albeit soggy; neither of us were prepared for the rain; Christian went and bought a shirt to have more protection from the elements; he did quite well shopping and buying clothes on this trip. Watching the rain spill from the roof tops and than follow the gutters in the medieval streets was something to see.
At one time, Toledo was home to large communities of Muslim and Jews; some of their architecture remains. What happened to them? Checking on Wikipedia, I see they were expelled in 1492.
D'oh, the web hyperlink will not work - here it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo%2C_Spain
Zara Cuban restaurant
We were walking around the 'Gay' quarter in Madrid looking for places with character to have some dinner. Christian spotted a Cuban restaurant. It was about 11:30 and night and we had to wait a bit for the table as the restaurant was packed. We were luckly, we were the last table to seated that night. The food was very simple but with a Cuban flair; I had pork, beans and rice and Christian had the meatballs, fried eggs and plaintain with rice. I could not resist and had a few daiquiris with the meal. One of the waiters was a white haired man in his sixties; he moved about the restaurant knowingly with a certain cautious bearing. I wondered what his story was; was he one of the owners? Cuban food is not known for being spicy at all. Years ago, someone told me they had a Cuban room mate and she had never had any kind of spicy food in her life growing up in Cuba; having Indian food was like a shock to the system for her.. I remember going to an allegedly Cuban bar/restaurant in London and it was nothing like the real thing.
This was my last night in Madrid; I was off to Barcelona in the morning.