Day 4

Up early, we grabbed a Starbucks Chai Latte and a pastry and headed for the train station. It was about a 10-12 minute walk and again it was a beautiful day. Making our way to the station, it had a huge atrium that was filled with tropical plants being misted by giant misters (bad for the curly made straight hair). We had a bit of trouble navigating the station, but we already had our tickets so there was no sense of panic. We had to go through security but didn't have to take our shoes off nor did I have to give up my Starbucks. The initial ticket ladies were a bit gruff, but we found one gal that was great and told us which track we'd be on. This is the first train station to actually scan your tickets before you could go out to where the trains are and you couldn't go out until your train was close to departing. Certainly a result of the terrorist attack 2.5 years after our 911. As we boarded our train, the train next to us had staff coming off. They were professionally dressed and looked more like flight attendants. The trains were immaculate inside. However, I did miss the photo opportunity of the large splatter of blood on the nose of our train. Obviously a large bird had a very bad day. Looked like it would have made a good story tho. As the train took out of the station, we kept waiting for it to turn around, but to no avail - everyone rode backwards all the way to Toledo. This doesn't make me sick, but I prefer to face forward. :) The ride was only 30 minutes.

Upon arrival to Toledo, you could take a bus or cab into town, but we opted for the 20 minute walk so we could go over the 2000 year old bridge constructed by the Romans. Prepare yourself for a Toledo lesson thanks to Wikipedia: Toledo was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage and historical co-existence of Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures. Toledo is known as the "Imperial City" for having been the main venue of the court of Charles I, and as the "City of the Three Cultures", having been influenced by a historical co-existence of Christians, Muslims and Jews. In 1085, the city fell to Alfonso VI of Castile as the first major city in the Christian Reconquista. Toledo has a history in the production of bladed weapons, which are now popular souvenirs of the city. People who were born or have lived in Toledo include Al-Zarqali, Garcilaso de la Vega, Eleanor of Toledo, Alfonso X and El Greco. It was also the place of important historic events such as the Visigothic Councils of Toledo. As of 2012, the city has a population of 84,019 and an area of 232.1 km2 (89.6 sq mi) - Thanks Wiki!

Guy and I think that Toledo either stood for knife or uphill because all we saw were shops selling knives and swords and it seemed like walking to and around the town was all up hill. Today I'm sporting my first blister, which I'm blaming on the hills. As we entered the town a sign was posted with some of the historical sites in the city and there was supposed to be the remains of an old mosque called the Belem. But we never saw it on either city map, nor walked by it. So there you go, however the city was dotted with influences of Islamic architecture. We will see even more when we head to Granada tomorrow and visit the Alhambra later this week. The photos you'll see from today will show some of beautiful architecture.

Ok, so lunch was a bit of an adventure. Trip Advisor wasn't a huge help and there were several outdoor cafes to choose from. Really just a flip of the coin. There were two restaurants next to each other that had good crowds and we chose the one that had the bigger menu. The young waitress seemed to speak pretty good English, but the menu was only in Spanish. Their menu board on the outside of their building had several translations, including English, but she didn't understand us. Guy pointed to the sign that said Toast with tomato and cheese, while I wanted fried cheese with mandarin sauce. I had to get up and walk over to the menu board on the building to show her what I wanted. She seemed kinda grumpy and so I apologized, but then she seemed ok once I was sorry for the inconvenience I was causing her. So after we ordered, Guy went off to wash his hands about the time the waitress came back over and said "no" to all of the menu except one small section. I thought she was only saying what Guy ordered was a no, so pointing to the menu in Spanish only she said "good, good, good" as she pointed to several items. I thought I could make out one that said "four cheese" and I said "cheese". When Guy got back to the table I told him that what he wanted was "gone yesterday" and I ordered him something else. This didn't go over really well, but we had so much trouble ordering we just let it go. When the food came out the bread looked lovely, but the toppings were a surprise. She sat a tomato and salami on bread in front of Guy and a melted cheese on bread in front of me. We decided to share and make a cheese, salami and tomato sandwich. Good plan until Guy tasted it and it was heavy on the blue cheese, which he doesn't like. So lunch was kind of a bust, but we finished it off with peanut butter M&Ms from our backpack and found a pastry shop that had some chocolate yummies.

We walked back to the train station at a leisurely pace because our feet were tired and we had plenty of time. We had an hour before our train so we copped a squat on a bench and enjoyed the cool breeze and sun. Across from us on another bench was a Spanish couple who were both out like a light. He was leaned over on his backpack and she had her head back with her mouth wide open. We kinda thought for a second they might be dead, but they were too tan. ;) So then there was another bench directly back to back from theirs. A businessman was sitting behind the young guy who had now sat up and was leaning his head back on the bench. Well the businessman was fighting sleep because his head kept flopping back and then jerking up. You know the routine...we've all been there and it is miserable. However, the two guys were back to back and were inches away from a major head collision when the businessman's head flopped back. We got so tickled we couldn't stop laughing.

We snoozed on the train and made our way back through the train station. Going back by the atrium we realized there was water surrounding the small forest of tropical plants and it was filled with turtles. Little ones, big ones, and all different kinds. There were so many they were on top of each other!. In fact, a pigeon landed on the back of one of them and then just hopped from turtle to turtle. Weird and hilarious all at once. So after our turtle visit, we drug our tired feet back to the hotel where I thought I'd get the blog started and Guy is taking a snooze. Since we are leaving tomorrow for Granada, I'm getting ready to give you my tourist summary of the area. Madrid: a fabulous must-see city if you are in Spain. Clean, vibrant, beautiful, crazy big, the women are snappy dressers (old and young) who love their high heels, and everyone smokes. Toledo: lots of tourists, interesting history, and great for a day trip- but wouldn't stay there overnight. Of course there is so much more to say than that...but this was my elevator speech. WiFi at the Westin is poor in the room and I'd really like to buy a SIM card for my iPhone, which is actually pretty cheap, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that move. I'd lose my US phone number while over here and for some reason that just bothers me a bit. However Amanda and I have been texting for free using in iPhone app called Viber, which works very well!

Not sure what is going to happen for dinner, but I knew I wanted to try the Spanish dish paella. We went to the concierge and asked where the best paella in town was. They named and restaurant and called, but it was booked until 10pm, so we went for option #2 which they said was also excellent. The restaurant was called La Paella, and that is basically all they served. It was a small mom and pop restaurant that looked like a place the locals would hang out. It is about 8pm (which is early for the Spaniards) but there was another table there already. The Momma (we called her Betty), spoke a tiny bit of English but the menu was in English and we chose the paella with chicken, vegetables and chorizo. Paella is usually prepared in larger amounts- to feed two people or more, so we had to choose one we both wanted. Other options were seafood, muscles, etc. She told us it would be about 20 minutes and while we waited they brought us some bread and butter. When our paella came out, Momma brought it to our table to present it to us, then took it to another table to plate it for us. I snapped a quick photo before she did. It was very delicious and the chorizo was really really good.   It did have a few tiny bones in it and I assume from the chicken as it was just pieces of cut up chicken with the bones in. *Betsy...tell John Massie I'm a big fan now*  After our paella we ordered the creme catalana, which was just like creme brûlée, but they over-torched the top just a bit and I said it tasted like a campfire, but we finally decided it tasted like a black marshmallow. ;) I scooted the topping aside and finished off the untouched pudding, no problem.

The walk back to the hotel was just lovely and the sky was still bright even at 9pm. We are off to bed because we have an early start tomorrow. If I failed to say so, the Westin is in a perfect location to walk to most attractions and it is a beautiful old hotel (did I mention there was an international Pepsi convention going on here?) Anyway...goodbye Madrid, it's been great!