Greetings from Toledo!
After leaving Madrid, we had a short drive of less than 1 hour to Toledo, Spain. As a native of Northwest Ohio (about 1 hour from Toledo, Ohio), I remember watching a “sister city” feature on the local Toledo TV station in which a few people from Toledo, Ohio, went to Spain so it was neat to see the city in person. In fact, we noticed “Calle de Toledo Ohio” (Toledo Ohio Street) about 1 block from our hotel. Additionally, one of the shop employees that had to look at my driver’s license for a purchase asked if I lived near Toledo, Ohio.
After seeing the city, however, I see very few similarities between the two cities other than the name. 🙂
Our first stop was to see the Cathedral of Toledo which has a very interesting history. The first church on the site of the present day cathedral was founded in the 1st century by Christians and then changed to a mosque during the Moor occupation. This original building was destroyed and then the current cathedral was built over a 200 year period. There are multiple architectural styles and cultural influences in the cathedral. Toledo was one of the only Spanish cities where Christians, Moors, and Jews lived (more or less) peacefully together. The separate quarters of the city are still visible today.
We spent the rest of the day wandering the narrow, crooked streets. We visited the city gate, more churches, and the El Greco museum. El Greco painted several major Spanish masterpieces. The museum provided a look at both original El Greco paintings and provided an idea of how a Spanish home would have looked in Toledo.
Famous El Greco Painting of Jesus Christ
El Greco Painting of the overlook of Toledo – looks similar to some of our pictures!
On our walk around the city, we had Toledo’s signature dessert – marzipan which is made primarily of almond paste and sugar. While we often see marzipan as a filling to chocolates in the US, it is eaten on its own either plain or with filling in Toledo.
We also went outside the walls of the fortified portion of the city to see an incredible view back over the city. We had a wonderful dinner at 10 PM (and people were still coming into the restaurant to be seated as we finished dinner!) which again included gazpacho, hake fish (very common), and ham-based dishes. It was very good!
Emily found a very interesting place to stay located on a pedestrian-only walkway right in the middle of Toledo. It was actually a hotel consisting of small apartments in a historic building that has recently been completely restored into a modern, new space. It was great being so close to everything so we could easily swing by for some air conditioning after a very hot afternoon.
It only got to 99 degrees
Views of the city at night
We’ve also enjoyed lots of local produce for breakfast and lunch. Peaches are in season, and there are oranges from Valencia which are very sweet. It was an interesting experience shopping in the market in Madrid (we didn’t exactly understand you had to weigh your fruit and add a tag to it before waiting in a line of about 20 people deep… now we know! ;)).
Adios for now!
Ryan & Emily - The Globetrotters 
You have not mentioned seeing any Skyline at any of your stops
Ralph
I have a sneaking suspicion that the Europeans are not feeling good and hungry for Skyline Time. 🙂
I see you have 3G on your phone. How are you doing that without the enormous data roaming charges?
I have an iPhone 5 so I have CDMA and GSM antennas for the coverage. I generally leave the cellular off and only turn it on when needed for 2-3 minutes. Verizon charges me $25 for every 100mb I use. So far both of us have used about 100mb in 2 weeks which isn’t horrible. I do have a SIM cutter with me, but I haven’t had time to get a local SIM card given that we have been seeing so many cool sites. I might try this in Australia. Did you try this?
We always leave data roaming off and only rely on wifi when we can find it. Lots of the hotels have wifi now, although that doesn’t help during the day.
Looks like a fantastic time remember the best adventures are spontaneous. Keep the posts coming! Tomorrow turn left once and see what comes along.
I loved Toledo when Eric and I went there 1.5 years ago. Amazing history. Enjoy the rest of Spain – it’s such an incredible country!
Thanks Jess!! We’re getting excited for Japan, China, and Australia too! Hope you both are doing well! 🙂
Toledo, San Francisco, and Kenny Loggins. Isn’t it great how you can go half way around the world and still not escape familiar names and bad 80’s music? Total Eclipse of the Heart was playing during my cab ride to the Buenos AIres airport this morning.
Amazing pictures from the Cathedral of Toledo. Just gorgeous.
Olá a partir de São Paulo!
Kristen,
Let us know if you want any food reco’s in São Paulo – our MBA team interviewed the top 5-10 chefs/owners there for research last year. They are probably still wondering why we cared about their restaurants so much!? 🙂 Are you staying in Faria Lima?
Reco’s appreciated! I’ll be doing a lot of work dinners, but maybe they’ll be impressed if I proactively suggest a restaurant. 🙂 Yes, staying in Faira Lima just down the street from the office.
Cool – Here are some places we enjoyed quite a bit during our time in SP:
-Dalvo e Dito (owned by the guy that runs DOM, one of the top 10 restaurants in the world, but more moderately priced)
-Cantaloupe (in F.Lima and very good food – the owner comped my meal which was awesome since I interviewed her!)
-La Mar – outpost of a well-known Lima PERU (not Oh) place
-Any of the Fasano restaurants are awesome, but a little pricey. There is one in F.Lima and the original in Jardims
-A. Figuerora Rubyiat is a place a lot of business dinners seem to happen. They have great steaks and you eat outside under a massive tree. They also have a huge dessert bar that Emily personally attacked with a vengeance. 🙂
-Brasil a Gosto – authentic Brazilian cooking with a new flair. Very talented chef and not horribly expensive – kind of hard to find I recall. The cabbie had to ask 2 other cabbies how to get there!
-Nagayama – some of our group ate here and said the Japanese food was great. Brazil has one of the largest JP populations outside JP in the world!
-Vecchio Torino – some of the best Italian food I have had in a long time – the guy at the door typically looks you over to see if you can come in and then unlocks then door – and promptly locks it after you enter for safety – this is SP….
-The Jardims area is really cool to look around and feels like Beverly Hills with all of its shops
Have fun!
Enjoying your posts; seeing and hearing about your travels. Thank you for keeping us updated. You remain in our prayers.
Thanks for remembering us in your prayers! We appreciate you taking the time to read our posts too!
What a beautiful city! Love reading and seeing your adventures. And, Emily looks stylish every day! Impressive.
Thanks, Sharon! Unfortunately, you will start to see several repeats soon given our limited luggage 🙂