Toledo and then Madrid again

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

David, our driver, met us outside the hotel at 9:00 a.m. He was able to pull his black Mercedes van up to the door of the hotel because the hour was not yet 11:00 a.m., when the street is turned over entirely to pedestrians. David is about six feet tall, 30, and with close cropped hair. He was born in Belgium and moved to Madrid at the age of 10. He drove us the 55 miles to Toledo, a walled city that was the capital of Spain, or at least of Castille, until the 1460’s, when the capital was moved to Madrid.

We met our guide, Fernando, at the Puerta de la Bisagra taxi stand. Fernando is about 5’8’’ tall, with short brown hair and brown eyes, wearing a blue denim jacket, khaki pants, and red-rimmed glasses. He was very soft-spoken and would occasionally refer to himself in the third person.

Toledo, a settlement in ancient times, is perched on an easily defensible hill within a large bend of the Tagus River, so that it is surrounded by water on three sides. Romans took control of the city in 192 B.C. In medieval times, a wall was built across the only side not protected by water, and the Puerta de la Bisagra was the main gate through the wall. Whoever controlled the city also controlled the only nearby ford that would allow an army to cross the river.

We drove around the east side of the city to a parador, a government-owned four-star hotel, on the south side of the river overlooking the city. Fernando pointed out the Alcazar, the cathedral, the Muslim quarter and the Jewish quarter to us. We then drove around the west side of the city to the Puerta de la Bisagra and entered the Jewish quarter. David stopped the van at a church called San Juan de los Reyes, so we could get out and begin our walking tour of the city. By chance, a TV series was being recorded on site, with actors in 15th-century costumes. One of the lead actors is a friend of Fernando’s and agreed to have his picture taken with us.

We walked to a 12th-century synagogue with the curious name of Santa Maria la Blanca. After the forced expulsion/conversion of Jews in 1492, all the synagogues were turned into churches. This former synagogue is still known by its later, Christian name. The synagogue was designed and built by Moorish residents of the city, as evidenced by the keyhole arches supporting the roof of the church. The capitals of the columns are decorated with reliefs that remind be of fiddle-head ferns.

When Fernando became aware of our interest in synagogues, he led us down the Calle de Samuel Levi to the Sinagoga del Transito. Samuel Levi, the king’s treasurer, financed this synagogue in the 14th century. The interior is decorated with elaborate Mudejar decoration, which contains no depictions of people or animals. Around the walls are Hebrew inscriptions glorifying God, King Peter “the Cruel” and even Mr. Levi. Supposedly, cedars were imported from Lebanon to build the synagogue, giving it something in common with the First Temple in Jerusalem. Within the synagogue is the Museo Sefardi, a fascinating exhibit of Sephardic Jewish culture, including Torah cases, descriptions of wedding celebrations, and circumcision instruments.

We walked through the narrow streets to the gothic cathedral. Because Toledo was the medieval capital of Spain, its archbishop was primus inter pares, first-among-equals of all the Spanish bishops. The cathedral amply displays his status. The treasury of the cathedral is a small museum of gold and silver religious devices and ornaments, many of them still used today. The most striking example was an enormous monstrance, a device for holding the host during communion. The larger monstrance is built around a small one said to have been used for communion with Isabella (and Ferdinand.)

Behind the altar is a display of biblical scenes done in wood that has been painted and gilded. Fernando’s favorite is the Assumption of the Virgin, where only the lower third of her body is shown as she ascends into the clouds. A room behind the altar contains pictures of each and every archbishop, going back in unbroken succession to the late second century. The Toledans either had unheard-of preservation of historical records, or a facile willingness to fill in missing details. Fernando seemed to think it was the latter. On the back wall of this room is a fresco of Christ raising the naked dead at the time of the Second Coming.

After lunch at a café, we said goodbye to Fernando and told our driver, David, that we wanted to see Picasso’s Guernica at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. He happened to have tickets to the museum, which he gave to us at no extra charge. What a great guy! Guernica was commissioned by the Republican government of Spain in 1937 for a world’s fair in Paris to draw attention to the Republican cause and to raise money to defend the Republic. Its subject is the bombing of innocent civilians in the town of Guernica by the German Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War. I have wanted to see it

since studying the Spanish Civil War in college. The painting never saw Spanish soil until 1981, when it came to Spain from a museum in New York, where it had been moved to avoid the ravages World War II.

We ate supper at a delightful restaurant called “La Kitchen” in the Chueca neighborhood. I had wondered about the Spanglish name until we met the chef, a charming Scotsman who had lived in Eagan, Minnesota, for eight years before moving to Madrid. Ken asked him for recommendations, which we followed religiously. I had squid stuffed with pig’s trotters, which is the best squid ever. Abby had curried hake and Ken had grilled croaker (also known as drum), while Gail ate a salad. The chef sent us each a piece of the best black pudding I have ever tasted and limoncello, a bright yellow digestif. Ken and Gail walked off in search of hot chocolate while a taxi took our aching feet back to the hotel for a warm night’s sleep.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Our guide, Mencia, and driver, John, met us in the lobby of the hotel at 10:00 for a walking tour of some upscale neighborhoods. One of our first stops was Mercado de la Paz, where the now-familiar Iberico hams were hanging by their hooves in the butcher shops. One of the fishmongers had a bright-pink octopus on display, as well as some live crayfish. Another store had beans, lentils and chick peas in every size, shape and color imaginable, and a few that weren’t.

Mencia led us into Loewe’s, a women’s fashion store that specializes in handbags. On the lower level, Loewe’s has a display

of artworks based on “ordinary” objects – hats, shoes, glassware, and so on. In this display the hats are torero hats, or caballero hats from Cordoba, and the glassware is already beautiful in its own right. Nevertheless, it was an interesting exhibit of unusual art. We then got a very tasteful sales pitch for an 1800-Euro handbag with titanium fittings. I asked if it would go on sale, and was quoted a price of 1600 Euros. Hmmmm. Maybe next year.

Mencia then led us to a very upscale chocolate store called Cacao Sampaka. She purchased two very very rich cups of hot chocolate for Ken and me that tasted like liquid chocolate, and very high quality chocolate at that. You could buy a selection of 16 single-bean chocolates for 11.50 Euros. The beans are from Papua New Guinea,

Venezuela, Grenada, Ecuador, Cameroon, Costa Rica, and such places. There were bottles of single-malt Scotch whisky placed strategically around the store to solidify the analogy of single-malt to single-bean. I purchased a box of assorted single-bean chocolates and marveled at the exquisite flavor of each.

At Mercado de San Anton Abby purchased a Tomate Kumato, a variety of tomato she had found in Barcelona and had been trying to rediscover every since. Mencia walked us to Estado Puro in Plaza de Santa Ana for lunch, where she bade us farewell. Just a few minutes later, we were joined by Clare, our delightful (and very professional) travel agent from Made for Spain with a charming Glasgow accent. We had a wonderful lunch while we visited with Clare,

who had personally made all our arrangements for our Spanish vacation. I ate a very tasty stewed tripe, a traditional Madrid dish, while Ken had some spicy potatoes, Abby enjoyed a Caesar salad, and Gail had some roast chicken. Clare was a very convivial lunch companion who couldn’t have been more polite or more professional.

After saying good bye to our friend, Clare, we took a taxi to the Royal Palace, which Christina had recommended to us two days earlier. The Palacio Real is roughly the same age as Versailles Palace in France, but had not been looted and pillaged by the French Revolution, so more of the furnishings and fixtures are still in place. Abby and I rented the audio guides, which helped to explain the many rooms in the Palace, including the armory, which includes many suits of armor created for Charles V and his son, Phillip II. Although the royals no longer live there, the Palacio Real is still used for important state functions. It would be a beautiful and grand setting for them.

Abby and I taxied to the hotel for a siesta before heading out to El Botanico, a local restaurant near El Prado and across the street from the Royal Botanical Gardens. Because of a police-enforced detour, and a small amount of confusion, we arrived at the gardens at 7:45, just as they were closing for the day. We were thus reminded of the European custom of actually cutting off admission to public places 15 minutes before the nominal closing time.

El Botanico Restaurante is right across the street from the entrance to the Royal Botanical Gardens, so we arrived at our 8:30 dinner reservation a bit early. The waiters had limited English and were a bit overworked, but nevertheless

managed to take care of our every need. We had a very tasty beef-and-potato appetizer that was followed by a main course of rice, herbs and seafood that was definitely NOT paella, or so we were told. We enjoyed the quarter moon and the crystal-clear, 70-degree Madrid spring weather so wonderful that it should be bottled and patented. A brief taxi ride took us back to our hotel for a brief chat with Ken and Gail and then to bed. Tomorrow, Cordoba and Granada.