Toledo Spain 2015

August 12, 2015 Toledo for the Day

We woke up ate a quick breakfast and grabbed two taxis (they wouldn't squeeze 5 of us in one taxi) to the Atocha Train Station. It was not the Atocha station I remember from the 90's. This Atocha had greenery, was clean and beautiful.  We had time so we walked around and came across a pond with turtles on the bottom level. Kids of course obsessed and were desperate to feed them. It wasted time before our train, they fed the turtles.

The train ride was short and relaxing to Toledo. From the train station, you have several options to get into town. You can walk (approximately 20 minutes), take a shuttle service, or grab a cab. Given the relatively low cost of the cab and our desire to maximize time, we loaded the kids into a taxi. Toledo is a walkable city, but entails a good amount of walking, so be realistic on what your kids can do based on their age. It's also quite hilly.

Toledo is a labyrinth of small streets, which no matter which way you go, you always end up near or headed towards the main cathedral. Santa Iglesia Catedral in Toledo is massive and it blew the kids away. They loved the visit, the art and learned about the relics of saints. After the Catherdral we let ourselves get lost and walked around until we stumbled upon the Toledo Torture Museum. As a kid, this is the coolest thing in the world, so we bought tickets and let them in. Once in, it dawned on us, the parents, just how revolting this was. The Spaniards had a way of masking the truth of who the devices were used on by calling the victims "heretics." They were not "heretics," they were the Jews of Spain. They tortured and killed them during the Inquisition. We shielded the information from the kids and moved on. We spent the rest of our visit going to two synagogues, Santa Maria la Blanca and  El Transito.

We took a train back to Madrid around 3 arrived around 4, took a nap and headed to The Retiro to feed the fish and ducks.