It only took about 4 months, but I’m finally getting around to writing about our Spain trip. While in Madrid we spent our second day travelling south by train on a day trip to Toledo. It was worth the journey just for the view walking up from the station…
Holy Toledo is right – the main attraction is the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo (Catedral Primada Santa María de Toledo). Toledo was already a big deal in the 13th Century and became even more important in the 16th Century as the seat of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of Spain. As a result its cathedral is pretty over the top. Apart from a bit of time spent wandering the streets most of our time was taken up exploring the cathedral.
That last picture captures the start of one of our obsessions on this trip – monstrances. Previously unaware of this genre of treasure, we got really into them. It helps that Spain has a tonne of them lying around. They get carried around during holy processions, and look equal parts fussy and heavy.
On the gastronomic front, Toledo is home to some excellent jamon bocadillos, a local stew called carcamusa (pork, peas, tomatoes and white wine) and a whole lot of marzipan. Sadly none of the marzipan reached the lofty heights of the La Glace marcipan gris that we dismembered over Christmas, but it was still pretty good.
That’s about it for Toledo – it was a nice introduction to many staple aspects of our trip: churches, ham, local stews and atmospheric narrow streets…
rigtig vigtigt 