I started
this post on the train Wednesday morning, but then vacation got in the way of
writing. Now it’s Friday evening and we’re taking a break from the festival in
Torrijos, so I’ll write some more.
Wednesday
morning was nice, because we didn’t have to get out of bed quite so quickly,
and we didn’t necessarily need to rush to leave. After showering and packing up
most of our stuff, Barry and I walked to the grocery store to grab some things
for breakfast. We went around the corner to the post office to mail something,
then back to the apartment. We had a nice breakfast of fruit, yogurt, cheese,
little French sausages, and the bread we purchased Tuesday in Cucugnan.
(Delicious!) We also made some coffee to help us through the day. I called a
taxi which arrived promptly at 10:30 as requested, and we took a short, stuffy
ride to the train station. I checked in with Europcar to make sure everything
had been in order with the car, and we had a short wait before the train
arrived.
We climbed
on board and had a much easier time stashing our bags before the train pulled
out of the station. We had some nice mountain views on the first part of the
trip just south of Perpignan. The stop in Barcelona looked familiar. We
traveled down the coast a while to Tarragona before heading across the
countryside toward Madrid. Along the way we saw a very arid landscape with a
mixture of white rocky cliffs, irrigated fields, quirky red hills, shallow
valleys with more farming and natural vegetation, quaint small towns,
industrial areas, and cargo transport infrastructure. Every time we went trough
a tunnel my ears popped. We made lunch out of our remaining fruit, cheese, and
yummy bread, along with some olive tapenade Gywen bought Tuesday at one of the
wineries.
We switched
trains in Madrid, wandering around a bit looking lost, because the signage wasn’t
fantastic. About an hour later we were on the train to Toledo, and after about
half an hour on that train we arrived. Toledo was impressive from the start,
with some interesting buildings visible from the train platform and the station
itself was beautiful, covered in colorful tiles. Our good friend Dean was
waiting for us there and it was wonderful greeting him for the first time in
ten years. He had come directly from work in his small car, so a few minutes later
his husband Antonio showed up with the larger car so we could fit all of us and
our bags. Barry went with Dean while Gywen and I rode with Antonio past the
stunning city walls and around to the other side of the Medieval capital for
the views from across the river. We stopped for a drink while overlooking the
river and the city there, before heading into the center of the old city….
Toledo view. |
I tell you –
there has been no time to blog. Here I am again on Sunday morning, writing on
the train back to Barcelona. We’re zipping through the countryside seeing
interesting flat-topped hills, olive trees, distant mountains, and overcast
skies. I just woke up from a little nap and I hope I can get this post finished
and at least start the next one.
Me and Gywen waiting for the car parkers in Zocodover. |
Wednesday
evening Dean and Antonio walked us through historic Toledo on the most level route
they could navigate for us, beginning at the Zocodover market area. We passed
shops on our way to Santa Iglesia Cathedral, Cardinal’s Palace, and City Hall
then walked through part of the Jewish Quarter before passing through some
former convents that have been re-purposed as University buildings. We finally
arrived at a restaurant for dinner which was in a dormer abbey. Our table was
in a private space downstairs, a small corner of the cellar with an arched
brick ceiling. We feasted on a meal of multiple small dishes, culminating with
some delicious venison from the nearby mountains.
Marzipan replica of a building facade, in a shop along the streets of Toledo. |
View of the church in Torrijos, from the apartment balcony, just before the fireworks. |
After dinner
we drove to Torrijos, where Dean and Antonio live. Antonio’s family owns an
apartment building there. They have a nice apartment on the third floor, his
sister Carmen lives downstairs with her family, and an Aunt occupies another
apartment. They keep a recently renovated apartment on the fourth floor for Antonio’s
parents in case they ever need it, and this apartment was given over to us for
our stay. They haven’t managed to install an elevator yet, so we carried the
bags all the way up and got settled in. Gywen went to bed but we stayed up to
watch the midnight fireworks from the apartment balcony. We arrived during the
annual Torrijos festival Le Sementera, a celebration of the harvest that lasts
for five days. This was the night for fireworks, and the town put on quite a
fantastic show. I’m not sure Barry agreed, but I thought they were every bit as
good as the fireworks in Barcelona although without the beach setting. The
fireworks were constant – no breaks in the action like we have in small town
American displays – and there were frequently as many as 6-8 rockets exploding
at once. The show included some cool spiral fireworks and some very colorful
ones, as well as quite a few that had secondary explosions of thick, poofy
sparkles. It was quite a satisfying “welcome” to small-town Spain. We fell into
bed shortly after the fireworks, although the local party went on well into the
night, as evidenced by the music we could hear most of the night from inside
the apartment.
And thus
concludes Wednesday’s post. We went through some pretty tree-covered mountains
and grape-filled valleys as we approached the coast. We are now approaching
Sants Station in Barcelona.
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