Travel: Spain 2014 | Part 13 - Toledo Day Trip· yc.sg

Day 13 - June 20

We woke up early as we had a train at 8.50am to catch to Toledo for a day trip. Our return timing is 8.25pm from Toledo to Madrid, so basically we would be spending the entire day in Toledo :)!

Toledo is about 30 minutes away from Madrid via the train, and we arrived sometime around 9.30am.

Our 6th, and final city, for this Spain trip!

The train station is very beautiful!

Inside of the train station.

We did not have anything planned for Toledo in advance. The aim was really just to walk around the city and enjoy our day in a relaxing manner. Unfortunately for us, we did not have a map with us, and again, we had to buy a map for 2 Euros :(. Once we had the map, we realized the train station is quite a distance from most of the attractions. Of course, we can walk if we wanted to, but it seemed like quite a long walk. We headed out of the train station to a nearby bus stop, and simply followed the crowd and boarded the next bus that came :P.

We stopped at the stop where everyone else got down, I think it was the centre of Toledo. Then we headed to a nearby cafe (that was also called Cafe & Tapas, I think it’s a branch…) for breakfast!

The chocolate drink was delicious!!!

Once we finished our breakfast, we were ready to explore the city!

Unfortunately, Sheryl was not feeling too well at this time, so we just took a slow walk to the nearby places first. There was a library of some sorts very nearby with a cafe at the top, that offers a good view of Toledo.

A short walk around the city and some photos…

At this point in time, Sheryl still wasn’t feeling much better, so we were thinking of what we would do. As luck would have it, we saw the Toledo City Tour bus. Although we were not at one of the designated stops, the bus driver still stopped for us. We boarded the bus and found out it costs 9 Euros each for unlimited number of rides. We opted for that option and paid 18 Euros in total. It was the first time we have ever been on a city tour bus. I use to have a bad impression of these buses, thinking that they’d be very touristy and all, but I am glad we went on board the bus! It provided us with views that I think would otherwise have not been possible, and basically gave a really nice overview of the entire city. There is an audio guide for the tour, earphones are provided too, so you can plug them into the earphone sockets on the seats and listen as the audio guide introduces the various attractions. Toledo is really beautiful.

One of the stops on the City Tour bus, the train station (again).

Clock tower at the train station.

See our earphones! We’re like attentive students listening to a lesson :P.

There was one stop where we’re allowed to get off for about 10 minutes to take some photos… Here’s one of Sheryl <3.

And one of me :P.

Finally, here’s a video that we recorded and made showing what we saw on the bus… Hopefully it gives you an idea of what you’d get with the City Tour bus.

After going around Toledo on the bus for about two rounds, we decided to get off and explore the city a little further.

We then headed to the Alcazar of Toledo, which is now also a military museum.

Hot air balloon basket on the right!

We didn’t take a lot of photos of the Alcazar/Museum. Much of it was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. Much of it was entirely rebuilt. The museum was a good visit, but I wouldn’t really recommend if unless you had the time. The museum part of it was great, lots of history and art, but if you’re there to see the Alcazar (like we were), there’s not much left to see. Most of the rebuild work being done doesn’t seem to be consistent with the original work that was there, the whole place looks a little “patchy”.

We then headed to a bakery to grab some bites.

Once we had our energy refilled, we went to the Cathedral of Toledo. However, we decided not to enter it as we were both quite tired and wanted to just soak in the vibe of the city. Also, we’ve been to a lot of other monuments before Toledo and were quite exhausted from seeing all of them :(.

We finally bought the Haribo gummy bear ice cream! We’ve been looking for it since we saw advertisements of it in Cordoba, but could never find it until now!

Finally, it was time for lunch. Sheryl saw this and insisted that we have our lunch here. Of course, I relented :P.

And I’m glad I did. The food is great! It feels like homemade food, and is very delicious!

Sheryl waiting greedily for her food.

Cafe con leche.

Hot chocolate drink.

I can’t remember the name of this dish, but it was some pork stew with bread and egg. Very flavourful!

Again, I can’t remember the name, but it was rice with either patridge or pheasant meat and mushrooms. Anyway, it’s very delicious!

It was about 6pm by the time we were done with dinner. We still had more than 2 hours to go before our return train to Madrid, so we decided to hop onto the city tour bus for a few more rounds. The view is that amazing :P. Unfortunately, we could not find our way back as easily as we thought we could. Either way, we finally made it, but before hopping onto the bus, we went to a nearby souvenir shop to buy stuffs for our families and friends.

And we found this t-shirt.

What’s the big deal about this t-shirt? Look at the 6 cities that are listed! Barcelona, Seville, Granada, Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba. These are the same 6 cities that we decided to cover in our Spain trip! We couldn’t believe the coincidence, and bought a kid-sized t-shirt so we could frame it up one of these days. Life has its way of amusing you sometimes!

Statue near the souvenir shop…

We then made our way to the bus stop, and finally got onto the bus again for a few more rounds. There was probably about 2 more hours to go! We were tired from the walking, yet we wanted to see more of the city, and the bus is the perfect way to do so :).

We stopped at the train station at 7.15pm and decided to explore that area as well. About an hour to go before our 8.25pm return train!

There was a nearby path that leads to a river, and being outdoor lovers, we decided to take that path…

And look at what it led us to!

Lots of geese!

Due to us being there (I think), the geese slowly made their way back to the water…

And swam across the bank :(.

Anyway, here’s a video of (almost) the entire incident!

All that’s left :(.

We then made our way back to the main road… Not before taking some awesome jump shots!

And photos of weird-looking insects too…

We headed to a bridge which overlooks the river… And saw a lonely duck:

And… We also witnessed the gaggle of geese crossing the river bank once more, back to their original spot. I guess they felt that the danger (us) is no longer there! Oh well :(.

Soon, it was time to board the return train back to Madrid. We arrived in Madrid sometime at 9pm. It was a long day and we decided to head back to our lodging. We’d have loved to spend our last night in Spain out, but we were really tired, and we loved the lodging a lot anyway :P!

Before heading back, we grabbed some take-away pizza from the 24 hour cafe near our lodging:

I remember we then spent some time packing our luggages :(. Time really flies! We felt like we were in Barcelona just yesterday, and now it’s almost time to leave Spain.

On a brighter note, we also made a brief itinerary for the next day :)! Magui (our Airbnb host) was very kind and allowed us to leave our luggages in our lodging while she cleaned up the place to prepare it for her next guest(s).

That’s all for Toledo!

Other parts in this series: