Spain 2011 Day 13 Saturday June 4

Spain day 13, Saturday June 4, 2011 – Seville, Toledo, Madrid – 369 miles !!

Hotel Agumar, Paseo Reina Christina 7, Madrid E-28014

http://www.hotelmadridagumar.com/en

GLOBUS: “Through the arid landscapes of Don Quixote’s La Mancha to Toledo, spectacularly situated on a granite hill surrounded by a loop of the Tagus River. A Local Guide takes you to the Moorish bridge, an early SYNAGOGUE, the 13th-century gothic CATHEDRAL, and the CHURCH OF SANTO TOMÉ with one of El Greco’s most famous paintings. Time to visit a DAMASCENE STEEL WORKSHOP. Tonight, enjoy a farewell dinner with wine at a local restaurant. (Breakfast, Dinner)”

On the road through La Mancha of Don Quixote fame, and we passed the typical windmills. At one place there were many on a hillside with a castle on top. In fact we passed quite a few castles on top of hills, many many farms, fields of sunflowers, fields of olive trees. It is a gorgeous country and the bus trip made us aware of the wonderful landscape almost everywhere.

At Toledo, we stopped at a damascene workshop, where they supposedly made the gold and steel jewelry and ornaments. The store had beautiful objects so of course I bought some souvenirs, and not cheap ones either.

Then we had a walking tour of the VERY hilly town of Toledo with a local guide. There are escalators to go near the top, but it is still a lot of hills up and down on slippery pebbly streets. So far no one has fallen, me included (!) but I still proceed carefully. Went to the cathedral of course, as it is one of the biggest in Spain, and very impressive. Too bad we did not see the room with many El Creco paintings however, as the guide hurried us on to the town to see a small church of Santo Tome with the most important painting by El Greco, “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz”, which was as wonderful as the guide and the books said, a very poignant and sympathetic portrayal, and then an old synagogue, very plain and simple.

Back on the bus for a short ride to Madrid, only about an hour, and first a stop at a famous restaurant, the Gijone, but rather small. I had paella, and must say that I don’t like it all that much, even though this was better than the frist day’s dish. It was raining when we finished, but the bus pulled up as though by magic to take us to our hotel, where our bags awaited us.