Toledo/Barcelona – Spain

As a family, for obvious reasons, we have anticipated traveling to Toledo, Spain for a long time. After an overnight train from Paris to Madrid and a quick train ride to Toledo, we finally arrived in our namesake city. It was lovely… until the food borne illness set in! Something in Toledo didn’t agree with the Toledo’s. We made a valiant effort to enjoy Toledo as much as we were capable of. There are few pictures (none of Flat Laird), we bought not one “Toledo” souvenir, and basically Toledo wasn’t as pleasant as we had hoped. All I can say is “I love our travel doctor” and “Thank goodness for Cipro!”

Toledo is actually quite interesting - built atop a rock (like every other city in Europe that wanted to defend itself from Roman conquest) and has a winding river, the Rio Tajo, that wraps around its edges. Every aspect of the old city still remains. To look at the city from across the river, you see an impressive cathedral, called The Cathedral, and a very monochromatic landscape of houses, bridge crossings and castles. We took an hour long open train ride around the entire city and we really enjoyed that – especially since we were sitting down. We stayed in a very charming hotel called the Hotel El Greco and walking around the town was really a unique experience. We got the feeling that life is, and always has been, good in Toledo. The elders of the town look healthy and well groomed and very happy to remain on their little “island” of Toledo. We were definitely on the mend as we headed to the train for Barcelona!

Barcelona was a nice surprise for all of us. I actually expected Barcelona to be a much smaller, quieter, beach town. It’s not! It’s a big city with lots to see and lots of people. Once we figured out what we wanted to see, we were pleased with our visit there. Our hotel was perfectly located on Calle Princesa, and there was a great Udon noodle shop downstairs that we ate at twice for “healing food”. Yummy. We also happened upon another Maoz falafel shop, which made us very happy. The first thing we did was took the kids to the Aquarium at the wharf. It wasn’t exactly what Matt and I wanted to do, but we sensed the kids needed a “kids” day, so we went. It was fine, and they loved it. We also took another Fat Tire Bike trip around Barcelona with one of Mike Franz’s’ friends, J.J. The tour was fun, but not at all like the great time we had with Mike in Paris. Some of the best moments in Barcelona came on our last full day when we were walking down to the metro to go to the Park Guell. We happened to turn down one of the old town streets and we came across the Parade of the Gigantes! It was so cool. About 50 giant (maybe twelve feet high) puppets, made up like Spain’s kings and queens and other various characters, came parading by us. We stopped and laughed and took a slew of pictures and marveled, again, at our timing. The Park Guell was truly a sight. Decorative, organic design at it’s best. Really magical and fun to explore. Gaudi’s cathedral is an impressive undertaking that, to date, still is nowhere near being completed. Gaudi’s cathedral reminds me of wet sand dropping sculptures. The architecture is unlike anything I have ever seen and I can see why Spain has a love/hate relationship with Gaudi (though he has been dead since the 20’s).

I would return to Barcelona, but with different expectations. I really can’t imagine the city in the dead of summer with the heat and the packed beaches (which are incredibly disappointing) and all the tourists. It’s feels like a city that doesn’t exactly love its tourists. Speaking fluent Spanish is hardly an asset. In fact, most of the service people look at you like you are speaking Japanese instead of a language that somewhat resembles theirs! That’s o.k. We kept smiling and making our way around and really did enjoy Barcelona!