We decided we needed to start waking down to the Atocha train station by about 8 a.m. so we decided to get up at 6:45 to be at breakfast at 7:30. We got up at the appointed time, but apparently Zoe had been up since 3:30, so the prospects for crankiness were high. Robert and I ate a little more quickly and headed down to buy the tickets.
Hanging out at Atoche Station before we head to Toledo.
Toledo Day Trip
The Maribel guide said there were only 261 seats on the train and often it sells out , so I wanted to get there as early as possible. I knew exactly where to go from my reconnoitering from last night and it was at the main ticket office next to the Biological Garden in the middle of the station. I had to wait in line for about 10 minutes, but we quite easily secured the six necessary tickets. It was €8.60 one way each, but with the round trip discount it came to €82.50 for the six of us or €13.75 each ($20.60). We found some seats by the door we thought they would come in and they arrived in about 20 minutes. Three of them were carrying Starbucks cups! They were happy, but they had sold out. Sue held out and didn’t get one. But then she had a terrible time trying to find any local place where she could get café to go.
We then waited for our track number to show up on the board and it didn’t come up until almost five after nine. Scheduled departure was at 9:20. We walked up the ramps and found Track 9 and got right on. The Renfe AVE train was very clean and nice. At exactly 9:20 the train moved out of the station…of course! The trip took exactly 30 minutes. We lost our groove when we had to all stop at he station bathroom. Suggest to your group they all go on the train. But the stations had nice, clean, free bathrooms to the left in a separate building as you exit the train. We bought a map from the gift shop and had a little trouble getting our bearings on where to pick up the bus. But finally realized that it was just down the street to the right as you exit the station. We got on a bus #5, paid €.90 each and headed up through the Puerta de Bisagra to the Plaza de Zocodover. Quite easy once we got it all figured out.
My Tour of Toledo
I decided to fashion my own tour. The logical start would have been the Santa Cruz Museum which has 15 El Grecos and got two triangles from Rick Steves, but I decided I wanted to go first to Santo Tomé to see El Greco’s The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586). One guidebook said that it often get very crowded when the tour buses arrive. But before we could get there a man approached us as we were getting our bearings near the cathedral and in his Spanish and come broken English he tried to tell us of this place near the monastery where they were doing craftsman work. He even gave us a paper that had the name and address on it Plaza Santa Isabel, 6 Artesania Burgueño. We were a little unsure where we were going so he eventually reappeared an lead us there. He was obviously working for them, but it was work the time to check it out. We eventually went down some stairs to see two craftsmen doing gold leaf work on several brooches. Interesting but not amazing or anything. I think we though we would see monks working. Nearby we found the shop and there was much to by at what seemed to be a reasonable price. There were great bracelets and crosses and brooches. Both Zoe and Kate got great stuff for themselves and gifts for all their friends. What a blessing to have that all taken care of. Another God thing.
Church of San Tomé and El Greco's Burial of Count Orgaz
We then wandered our way toward San Tome. Apparently the girls were getting hungry but we pushed on. Robert finally bought a belt so his girl pants wouldn’t fall down any more. I realized we were right at the back of the church and I found an alley way that took us right to the front of the church. It cost €1.90 to enter but the kids were free because they are under 18 and Kate was half price as a student. The chapel was very simple but the painting really was amazing.
El Greco, The Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586
Rick Steves calls it El Greco’s most beloved painting. It is in exactly the same spot where El Greco placed it over 400 years ago. A local priest hired El Greco to paint it in 1586 to hang over the count’s tomb. I stayed for quite a while as I read the Rick Steves’ description. Definitely one of my favorites.
As we emerged from the chapel the sun was fully shining! And a huge line of tourists had formed. Everything was so right.
Across the square we saw a Lladro shop with a very interesting guy who told us the story of Nao and Lladro-both owned by the same company, but Lladro all done by hand. Sue bought a polar bear for €53. From there we walked down to El Greco’s house and stopped at a store where Robert bought a butterfly knife from Toledo-it said so right on the blade. I had read the El Greco’s house was closed for remodeling, but all the paintings that were there were now exhibited in the Museo Victorio Macho. As we crossed the major street that was perpendicular to the hill we had been walking down we found this beautiful terrace with stunning views of the gorge below and the Tajo River. The sun was shining. You could see a fourteenth century bridge off to the right and understand how the river and the gorge was such a natural protection for Toledo . After we went into the museum were were a bit confused as we didn’t understand what was going on with all the Vitorrio Macho sculpture. But we finally did locate the El Greco exhibit and it was amazing. The View of Toledo, The Tears of Peter and the set of Christ and the 12 Apostles. We were not quite sure how they were defining apostles and what was the difference between an apostle and a disciples.
Everyone was getting hungry so we stopped at the place Robert had bought his knife and he bought one for Danny. We then hiked up to the place that we had seen earlier that had Chocolate con Churros. I was in one of my “not wanting to deal with it moods” and I let them get the lunch. It turned out to be very mediocre although the churros with chocolate were fun and the coffee was good. Robert refused to eat.
The Cathedral with the Mini Prado
We walked along toward the cathedral which was our next mission and had some Fanta and water. The entrance to the cathedral was pretty hard to find, but we did finally locate it. The cost was €6 each with no discounts this time, so a full €30 was quite a bit. We patterned our tour after the RS book and started with the Choir and its amazing wood and alabaster carvings. The wood carving depicts scenes of the taking back of Spain by the Christian world one city at a time. Toledo was the first city to be recaptured by Christian forces in 1085–over 400 years before they overtook Granada. The upper stalls show an alabaster genealogy of he church starting with Adam and Eve.
We then walked around a bit to locate the High Altar which actually had been right across from the entrance to the Choir. It really was stunning. Next we turned to the Sacristy area and we went in to the lesser of the two areas first. It only had one El Greco. Luckly I read my guidebook and discovered there was another room referred to as a mini-Prado with 18 El Grecos, and other masterpieces by Goya, Titian, Rubens, Velasquez, Caravaggio, and Bellini. The jewel of the main room was El Greco’s Christ Stripped of His Garments.
El Greco, The Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio) 1577-79
To the right of that was a rare religious painting by Goya, the Betrayal of Christ. The beautiful fresco on the ceiling was done by Lucca Giordano of Naples c. 1690. It really was the most amazing collection of art in two relatively small rooms that could possibly exist anywhere.
From there we rested for a moment and found a rest room out off a small courtyard from the Sacristy. Then we went out to another courtyard to view some outdoor frescoes and some they were restoring in another room. Before we left I had to find the Transparente, the hole that was cut in the ceiling to let sunlight in during the 1700s. The sculpturing they did around it was really quite amazing. We finally left. Probably about a half an hour longer than anyone wanted but me and we wandered back to Plaza de Zocodover to hang out until we had to catch our 5:25 train back to Madrid. When we got there it was just a little after 3:30. we really couldn’t have made the 3:30 train without feeling rushed, but we had some serious time to kill. We sat around on the benches for awhile and I walked over and found our exactly how to catch the bus to the train station. Just take a # 5 or #6 down the hill on the opposite side of the street we got off on. It seemed right but none of the guidebooks actually said how to get BACK to the station.
We wandered around lost for a bit but finally settled in at an outdoor café. There really weren’t enough chairs and it rightful made Christine a bit uncomfortable. She then went into her “I don’t want to play this game” mode. Pretty much the same one I had been in during lunch. I had a coffee and Sue and Kate had beers and Zoe had a Coke. Robert refused to play along and had nothing. There was just about an hour left and we decided to check out Santa Cruz museum when we found out it was very close and free. We walked over and there was an exhibit there, but all the signage was in Spanish so it was all pretty pointless. There was no sign of there 15 El Grecos either. We got out of there, found Robert who had decided not to go with us, and caught the nest #5 bus back to the train station. We arrived about 20 to five. Perfect.
I couldn’t quite figure it out, but they didn’t let us board until 5. There was a metal detector for your carry on bags, but Robert just put the knives he bought in his coat pockets so he got those through no problem. We found our seats in car three and were off at exactly 5:25. I didn’t sleep and spent most of my time studying up for dinner. I decided we would try a place called the Zoe Café pretty close to our hotel. I found where it was on the map and decided to check it out on the walk back from the train station. We arrived at 5:55, used the restroom in the train station and headed up the hill from Atocha station. On the way we left the kids at a thrift store, Sue got lost up ahead so Kate went to catch up to her and Christine and I stopped to get cash and went over a couple of streets to find Zoe Café on Santa Maria 28. It looked all right and the menu seemed fine so we decided to go back for dinner at about 8. It was about 6:30 when we got back to the hotel. Sue and Kate took a nap and Robert and Zoe found a cheaper internet café.
Café Zoe–“I’ll Never Be Able to Look at a Barbie Ever Again!”
We walked to the New-Restaurante ZKF (Zoe Café) which I had found in the Maribel Guide. It described it as a café-bar-restaurant for the neighborhood’s young and trendy set with free Wi-Fi, rotating art exhibits and a good price to quality ratio. When we got there we were not greatly warmly in anyway and were walked back into a room where there was an art exhibit. Fine except it was a bunch of pictures of Barbies doing weird and perverted stuff. There was also a digital projector displaying cartoons on the wall and the music was some kind of techno vocal stuff. The waiter handed us these typed menus in English with out a whole lot of selection but enough that we decided to stay.
We got the starter sampler platter with spring roles, mozzarella and brie with nuts, a hummus curry thing, some dumpling thing and other stuff I forgot about. For main course Christine and I had the punpkin ravioli, Sue had a salad, Kate had a curry chicken dish, Robert had pork on a stick and Zoe had what amounted to Brie Quesadillas. The bread and the breadstick nuggets were also good. We could never find our waiter particularly at the end of the meal and so we walked up to the bar to pay. €82.50 total.
At least it wasn’t outrageously expensive.
Ben Sidran Quartet at Café Central
We had helato at the same place we had it on Monday and then Robert and I decided to go to the Ben Sidran jazz show at the Club Central right next to our hotel.
Apparently I later read that this is one of the most renowned jazz clubs. We walked right in and left them out in the street. Sue came ion and we told her we were staying. We sat in some chairs then moved to a booth on the side with a perfect sight line. In a few minutes a guy came over and collected the €14 each cover charge and I ordered a couple of cervesas. We only had to wait a few minutes for the first set to start. I wasn’t sure I would like it as I am not a huge fan of the Hammond organ, but I LOVED it from start to finish. Bob Rockwell was spectacular on the tenor sax.
His son was on the drum and the guy on the electric guitar was great too. His first song was the Bob Dylan tune “Serve Somebody.” Ben sort of sings talks, but it was really cool. Bob Dylan became a theme of the night. Throughout the night he also did “Maggie’s Farm,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” and “All I Really Want to Do”; along with a lot of other hot jazz.
Bob Rockwell and Ben Sidran of the Ben Sidran Quartet playing his version of "Maggie's Farm" by Bob Dylan at Cafe Central.
The last song they did was based on a Garcia Lorca poem from the ‘30s that Ben sang in Spanish. Ben did a rap on Lorca and his role in the revolution. Apparently he was killed in 1937. For an encore they did “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In” and then when it was all over we went up to Ben at he bar and asked him if the Bob Dylan stuff was recorded and he set they were going to start recording it in December and it would probably be out in June. It all ended at about 12 and we were so smoky from the two guys who sat next to us during the second set who smoked about seven cigarettes in 45 minutes that we decided to walk around for awhile. Robert also wanted to see if his Internet place was still open (it wasn’t). So we walked around down to Puerta Del Sol and then walked down Avenal to try and find a chocolate place I had read about in a guidebook. We did find it, and we were amazed how many people were still out at midnight. We got back to the Persal at about 12:30, and I left Robert in the lobby to use the Internet.
Another amazing, crazy day. They just keep getting better
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