Heading to Toledo

It was hot in southern Spain, and we missed the ocean breezes of Rota, we decided to skip Cordoba and go directly to Toledo. The parador in Toledo was filled, so we asked the desk manager at Carmona to help us and he suggested a nice downtown hotel in Toledo – Carlos V. Drove about 6 hours today on their autovia (interstate). On the way, we got off at a little town called La Carolina to have lunch. No one spoke English and we speak so little Spanish that David ended up with a big potato pancake and Margo didn’t order anything. But it was a charming street café.

We arrived in Toledo about 6:00 p.m. and our first impression was this is a very ancient city. It is very hilly with winding roads and ancient architecture. Our GPS really really helped. But just about two blocks away from the inner city hotel, we encountered a police barrier/detour. We ended up driving in circles for another 20 minutes, really testing our skills with the clutch. We asked several people, no spoke English, but they all tried to be helpful, using a lot of body language! Finally, we just parked the car and walked two blocks. We walked to the local market (one block) and got some fresh fruit. Came back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice dinner here –roast leg of lamb and some gazpacho soup – much more reasonable price.