Toledo in January Trip Report

 

We spent 3 nights in Toledo at the end of January.

It’s easy to get to Toledo by train from Atocha Railway station in Madrid. You have to book tickets but then it’s hassle-free and less than an hour. The train station in Toledo is beautiful! When we arrived there were several taxis waiting and we took one to our apartment in the historical centre.  It cost less than 8 euros. Otherwise there are escalators and a walk or there’s a bus. The historical centre of Toledo is medieval: narrow streets with very tall buildings in a pinkish brick and so many interesting buildings, just from the outside that I found it difficult not to add about 20 photos to each of these posts. 

We stayed in a very comfortable apartment which I booked direct with an agency after my usual investigations on various booking sites. In the end, most of the apartments and definitely those which looked ‘ok’ to me are in their hands and the apartment was very nice indeed. The only heating was hot air from the A/C but in this case it was enough, despite the near freezing nighttime temperatures and the cold wind. There were two A/C units which helped.

We stayed from Monday to Thursday so the streets were very quiet, just a few tourists around the cathedral area during from late morning until mid-afternoon. As I said, the weather was quite cold and we felt the cold more there than in Madrid – whether because it was colder in those particular days, because of the hilltop position and the wind and maybe also because in the narrow streets there was less sun. Sightseeing was a bit chilly in the mornings, fine later on and it wasn’t cold enough to distract us or put us off. 

On the first day I went to the cathedral for the free visit in the early morning, and that was ok for me, although if you buy the ticket you could easily spend most of a morning or afternoon there. We bought the ‘pulsera turistica’ – tourist wrist band  of Toledo Monumental which for 12 euros allows you to visit San Juan de los Reyes, la Sinagoga de Santa María La Blanca, la Iglesia de El Salvador, la Iglesia de Santo Tomé for the El Greco masterpiece: El entierro del Señor Orgaz, la Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, la Iglesia de los Jesuitas (San Ildefonso) for the views from the top and el Real Colegio de Doncellas Nobles. That day we also saw the Santa Maria del Transito synagogue near Santa Maria la Blanca. The same day we walked down to Puerta del sol and then Puerta de Bisagra before continuing up to Plaza Zocadero to see the outside of the Alcazar and have a hot chocolate in the library cafè at the top. It was a packed but leisurely day of sightseeing. All of the monuments are worth visiting but they are all quite small so we didn’t feel rushed.

On the second day in the morning we visited the El Greco Museum and the nearby Taller del Moro ‘museum’. In the afternoon we saw the Cobertizos – narrow streets covered by buildings and the Museo de los Concilios y la Cultura Visigoda (free entry) for the Mudejar church with Romanesque frescoes and museum. We also wandered around the centre and visited the Museo de Santa Cruz, also free for the patio, paintings by El Greco and other Golden Age artists, azulejos and ceramics and typical costumes. We finished the day back up to the Cafeteria de la Biblioteca for hot chocolate. 

Our last morning we used the escalators and walked to the station for the views of Toledo from below and took quite a few photos of the station. We then returned to Madrid Atocha by train, punctual as always.

We didn’t eat out in Toledo. We were very comfortable in the apartment and the Mercado Municipal was convenient and inexpensive for buying the food we needed including a good choice of fresh fruit and vegetables and fish.

A day trip to Toledo would not have been enough for me, it would have been far too rushed. Three nights was about right considering it was January. If the weather had been better I’d have spent the first afternoon strolling around more. So, even an extra (fourth) night would have been ok for more meandering and a walk to see Toledo from the viewpoint.