Day 3: Toledo

Once we'd relaxed in the hotel room for a while yesterday afternoon, we set out again to meet our friends for dinner (at the very Spanish dinner time of 20.30). They took us to a restaurant which specialised in food and drink from the Asturias region of Spain, a part which we've never been to. I was surprised to learn that Asturias has a strong tradition of making cider. We were served small glasses of it, together with little buns filled with chorizo.

After the three-course meal we'd had at lunchtime, we weren't absolutely starving even by 20.30. But luckily we were in Spain, and so rather than ordering another full meal we were able to have plates of tapas for the table to share. We had chorizo soaked in cider, which was really lovely, as well as a dish with beans whose name I can't remember.

The cider we'd been drinking was very sweet, but the bar also served a second type of Asturian cider, which had to be squirted out of a bottle into a glass via this strange contraption. That one was much less sweet and tasted more alcoholic.

It was a really interesting experience and definitely not somewhere that we would have thought to come in on our own (or known what to try if we did!).

Afterwards, our friend announced that we were going to go somewhere different for dessert. We ended up in a place called Casa de la Torrijas, where they serve a pudding which is like the Spanish version of French toast. Traditionally eaten during Holy Week, it's bread soaked in milk and then fried in egg.

Tim went for the traditional version, which is the picture above. I tried a variation on the theme, where the bread was soaked in sweet wine.

Both were absolutely delicious   And the interior of the bar itself was very pretty, with tiled walls. Again, it's definitely not somewhere we would have found on our own but it was a really cool experience.

This morning our plan was to travel to Toledo. We've been to Toledo once before, when we visited Madrid back in 2017, but back then we didn't realise that tickets on the fast intercity trains in Spain sell out and you need to book in advance if you want to travel at a specific time. It's a good system, because it means that when you buy a train ticket you're guaranteed a seat, but it's not good when you get to the station and find there are no tickets left for your train, which is what happened to us in 2017. We got to Toledo in the end, but ended up not spending as much time there as we'd planned.

Luckily, it's now easy to buy train tickets in advance with the Renfe app. We set off from the hotel to the main Atocha train station, with plenty of time to spare before our 10.15 train.

It turned out to be a good job that we'd turned up with plenty of time to spare, because once we got inside the station we found absolute chaos. The info boards which are supposed to inform you which platform your train is departing from seemed to be malfunctioning, so the only trains being displayed were ones which had departed hours ago.

There are two floors to the station and you need to know whether your train is departing from the first floor or the ground floor so that you can go through security in the right place. There was no live information about train departures available in the app, so in the end Tim had to ask someone for assistance and we established that the train to Toledo would be departing from the ground floor.

We went through security and then found ourselves waiting in a very crowded holding area. The platform was eventually announced a few minutes before the train was scheduled to depart, along with an announcement that departure was imminent. There was a mad crush to get through the gate onto the platform, with everyone's ticket having to be checked before they were allowed through.

We did make it onto the train in the end and somehow it only departed a few minutes late. The journey to Toledo was pretty short, so in not much more than half an hour we had arrived. The train station in Toledo is a very ornate building.

From the station it's a walk of ten minutes or so to reach the entrance to the historic part of town. Before too long we had our first glimpse of it.

As you can see, Toledo is built on a considerable hill and so we had quite a lot of walking uphill ahead of us today!

First of all we had to cross a bridge over the river Tagus...

...and pass through an impressive gate into the old city.

There are some steps which lead very steeply up the hill, but we decided to take a gentler option and follow the more gradual slope of a road.

Soon we had gained a bit of height and had some nice views downwards.

Because we hadn't followed the main tourist route up, we were wandering along narrow little side streets which were very peaceful.

We admired what looked like beautiful brickwork on these buildings...

...only to find when we got up closer that the patterns were actually painted on

We didn't have a plan of what we wanted to see in Toledo so we were just wandering, seeing what we could find around each corner.

There were so many beautiful churches...

...and squares.

We'd got to the top of the hill by this point and had some spectacular views out over lower parts of the town.

When walking along another small side street, we found this unusual bridge between two buildings.

It was really pretty

Eventually we arrived in a square from where we had a view of Toledo's cathedral.

It was a really sunny day and we decided to stop here for a drink to enjoy the sunshine.

Afterwards, we made our way to Toledo's main square, Plaza de Zocodover, which was very busy! There seemed to be lots of tour groups setting off on guided walks around the city from here.

Walking slightly downhill now, we got a glimpse of the Alcazar, Toledo's big castle.

You can't really get a sense of the size of it from these photos, but it's huge.

It was extremely busy around the Alcazar, with lots of cars, coaches and even a tourist train. We veered off down some quieter side streets, looking for places to eat.

After having pizza on our first night, we decided to try and be more adventurous with Spanish food today and ended up ordering tapas at a place that had been recommended by our friend yesterday. We ordered some potato omelette and beef stew. Tim was particularly adventurous and also had an oxtail croquette, which I didn't quite get in the photo.

Our train back to Madrid was booked for 15.25, so after lunch we started walking back towards the station. At least it was downhill in this direction

We crossed back over the river...

...and had a final look up at Toledo before turning off towards the station.

The station wasn't too busy when we arrived - definitely not as chaotic as it had been in Madrid this morning - and we were able to admire the interior.

It's a very impressive station - almost like being inside a church!

Then there was just another short train ride back to Madrid. It's been a really fun day and surprisingly sunny, given that the weather forecast was for rain. I'm glad we haven't ended up needing to use the rain coats we packed