Trip to Spain: Toledo, Mayor-o, Flamenco, OLE!

Toledo

On day three in Madrid we decided to go on a day trip to Toledo (pronounced Toe-lay-do). If you remember from my earlier post, one of the train employees tried to tell us one day was never going to be enough to explore Toledo. She was wrong. I mean we were toursists, it might be different if we were students of architecture or catholocism but we wanted to see some sights, visit some pretty buildings do some touristy things and that's about it. One day was plenty, and it was a great day. The train ride was very nice and only about 25 minutes from Madrid. Toledo is a mixture of Spainish and Moorish influences as well as Christian, Jewish and Muslims faiths, as well as being a well know producer of steel. You can read more about it here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo%2C_Spain ). One of the most commanding structures of the city's skyline is the Alcazar:

The town is very hilly but everything you want to see is located pretty centrally. We started at the bus station and hopped on a tourist bus. They offered a package right in the train station lobby. It was 10 euros for an hour, partly on the bus and partly a walking tour of the town. The bus tour is all in Spanish but there was some printed material in English. Our guide was very nice and did try to tell us a few tidbits in English. The bus tour takes you around the city and stops for some nice photo ops:

The tour then continues on foot eventually dropping you off at the Plaza de Zocodover, sort of the central area which eveything is just a short walk away. Tons of great architecture to see:

Including the Toledo Cathedral:

We had a cool opportunity to watch some artisans work on a decorating technique originally from Damascus. The artists take incredibly fine gold thread and gold leaf and hammer it onto iron making amazingly complicated designs:

We had a very nice late lunch at Cason de los Lopez, jus a short walk from the Plaza de Zocodover. Our server was really friendly and although she spoke no English she really went out of her way to make us feel at home. We ordered the "menu of the day" which you can find all over Spain and usually consists of whatever they got fresh that day. We put our trust in our server and weren't disappointed. We had a delicious cream of zucchinni soup, fish with garlic and a sort of fruit smoothy for desert. It also included coffee and wine, all for 11 euros, what a deal!

There's lots of shopping in Toledo as well. From cheesey tourist trinkets, hand made art pieces, swords and knives of all kinds as well as Illadro, (http://lladro.stores.yahoo.net/willtocreate.html ) apparently another girly collectible I really knew nothing about, but Denise bought a really lovely piece. We kind of felt that we maxed out our time in Toledo and headed back to Madrid.

Plaza Mayor

We spent some time wandering around a bit and hung out in the Plaza Mayor which is this huge square full of little cafe's:

Then we decided to have dinner and go see a flamenco show. This dinner was really nice, we hadn't had the best luck with food since we got to Spain but this place was very nice and had good food. The Spainsh enjoy a nice long meal and never did we ever get rushed. They also don't really return that much to check on you like a restaurant in the united states. It's all very relaxed and casual. Another interesting observation about Madrid, we saw very few people walking around on the streets talking on cell phones or carrying around coffee. They just didn't do it. We saw some people on cell phones, but the majority of them looked like tourists. I don't think I saw anyone carrying around coffee in the morning. People actually go somewhere have coffee and drink it there

Flamenco

One of the coolest things we did this whole trip, for me at least, was going to the flamenco show. It was just great to watch. We went to a place called Las Carboneras (http://www.tablaolascarboneras.com/ ). Their postcard said they did two shows and we had our hotel call to make reservations, but the only had voicemail. We actually stopped by the place during our wanderings and spoke to someone there. It was good thing too, becasue they were only doing one show that night. You can eat dinner there as well as see the show, but we were very glad we ate elsewhere as their menu looked very much like the one from the other night which was terrible. Now we didn't eat there so I can't say for sure how the food was. The show fee, which I thing was about 25 euros included a drink of your choice. If you can get a table next to the stage that would probably be best, although the place isn't that big so you shold have a decent view wherever you are sitting. The show was great. Now I've never seen flamenco so it may have been the worse version of this style of dance ever and I would have never know, but I thought it was really cool. Flemenco is very much about the singing (although I thought it was about the dance) but the singers are well respected and the style of singing is somewhat odd to a westerners ear. While the music and singing are very much scripted and follow a precise format, the dancing and clapping are all improvised and follow the dancers instintcs as they listen to the music and follow the beat. Apparently there are two types of flamenco; those that are very informal and occur in local communities and are very spontaneous and those that are organized into theatrical shows or operas. The dancing was incredible to watch. The women were not young nor were they super skinny, but boy could you fel the passion in their dance. There was a male dancer as well who was really good. They all seemed incredibly expressive and sexy. I wish my pictures came out a little better, but I think you really need to see this in person to capture the true feel of the show. I highly reccomend checking one out if you get the chance.