DJmotortouring

Almost completely surrounded by the River Tajo (the Tagus River), Toledo is a small but beautiful city which was Spain’s capital under Charles V for more than 40 years until, in 1561, Philip II made Madrid his capital. Toledo is often described as the ‘city of three cultures’ and, certainly, it’s history and architecture is rich with the influences of it’s erstwhile Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. Indeed, Toledo’s extensive monumental and cultural heritage prompted UNESCO to declare the city a World Heritage Site in 1986 and it has since become one of Spain’s most popular tourist destinations.

Over the two days we had allowed ourselves to visit Toledo, I was never going to have enough time to see all the historical monuments I had read about and I therefore prioritised them. Top of my list was the Iglesia de San Ildefonso (more often known as the Iglesia de los Jesuits). The Iglesia de Santa Tome, the Sinagoga Santa Maria La Blanca, the Monastery of San Juan de las Reyes and the Alcazar de Toledo had to be in my top five and; of course, I was keen to see the Puenta de Saint Martin and the Puenta de Alcantara (i.e. the two bridges of San Martin and Alcantar together with their attendant city gates). Oh, and not to forget the (former) Mosque of Cristo de la Luz. If it’s religious buildings in particular that you are interested in, the list in Toledo is almost endless.

It may surprise some that Toledo’s Cathedral (the Primatial Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, to give it it’s full name) was not included in my top five but; I was so fixed for time and; when you’ve seen London’s St Paul’s, Moscow’s Saint Basil, Milan’s Duomo, Paris’s Notre Dame and the cathedrals of Canterbury, Chartres, Cologne and Vienna to say nothing of the Spanish cathedrals of Barcelona (La Sagrada Familia) and Santiago de Compostella (to name but a few), Toledo’s…. well, like I said, I was so fixed for time and, anyway, there’s an entrance charge. I’ll probably regret this decision – next time!

We were booked into Camping El Greco on the banks of the Tagus and within easy walking distance of Toledo’s old town or, to be more precise, it’s walled city. It was a short walk to the 14th century Puenta de San Martin, one of the two original bridges into the city (the other being the Roman Bridge, Puenta del Alcantar) and without a doubt my favourite of the two. I did my best to ignore the teenagers zip-lining over the river, took a few photos and then made my way up past the Monastery of San Juan de las Reyes (and after an all too short visit) and then on through the Jewish Quarter until I reached the Iglesia de San Ildefonso.

The Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes is the first impressive building that you’ll see in the city after crossing the Sant Martin Bridge. Ferdinand and Isabella commissioned it in 1476 to commemorate the Queen Isabella’s victory at the Battle of Toro (which secured her claim to the throne). It’s run by an Order of Franciscan Monks and was once the largest monastery in the city but much of it was destroyed by Napoleon’s troops during the Peninsula War. It has a beautiful enclosed cloister and garden area with a cluster of orange tree. It makes for a real oasis in this busy city.

My next stop was the Iglesia de San Ildefonso. I suspected the Jesuit church would be a beautiful church in it’s own right (the Jesuits rarely did things by halves) but I knew too that it is possible to access it’s bell tower and I figured that from this vantage point there would be some exceptional views over the city. I wasn’t disappointed on either count. Of everything I saw in Toledo over the two days we were there, this building is my favourite.

It was during my visit to the Iglesia de Ildefonso that my list of priorities changed a little. In the church I learned it is possible to buy a tourist bracelet for just 14 Euros which allows entry into seven of Toledo’s most impressive monuments (at least twice and for as long as you like provided it is open and you are wearing the bracelet). The bracelet is convenient and great value for money since entry into each of the seven monuments is at least 4 Euros but, be warned, it does not cover entry into either the Cathedral or the Alcazar of Toledo. That fact saw the Alcazar disappear from my list of “must-sees”. On this occasion I would make do with a walk around the outside of both the Cathedral and the Alcazar. I think entry into the Alcazar is free on Sunday’s anyway.

It is easy to pinpoint both Toledo Cathedral and the Alcazar of Toledo. Being 90 metres tall, the 13th century cathedral’s spire is visible from almost anywhere in the city while the Alcazar of Toledo (originally a Moorish Palace before being converted into a Castillean Palace) is the most prominent building in the city and occupies the highest point of the city. It’s a massive structure, built more like a fortress, and was in fact used as a defensive stronghold by Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. It was badly damaged at that time but has since been restored. I passed the Cathedral on my way up to the Alcazar and, to be honest, while they are two of the most significant buildings on the Toledo skyline, I didn’t feel bad about passing them by.

From the Alcazar I retraced my steps to the 13th century Sinagoga Santa Maria La Blanca in the old Jewish Quarter of the city. There are two well preserved synagogues from the Middle Ages in Toledo, the Santa Maria La Blanca and the Transito Synagogue (which also contains a small museum). I don’t recall ever having been into a synagogue before but the Sinagoga Santa Maria La Blanca quickly became my second favourite building in Toledo. It is remarkable in it’s simplicity. There are no fixtures nor fittings on show; no furnishings; just white walls, columns and stone arches and a gallery (where the Jewish women stand?). Of course, it may not have always been so but it’s simple elegance so impresses me. It is beautiful and, ironically, not unlike a couple of mosques that I have also been inside. The synagogue was converted into a church during one of the city’s pogroms, hence it’s Christian name.

Another building which had it’s name changed by the Christians was the Mezquita del Crist de la Luz (the Mosque of Christ of the Light). This small but imposing onetime mosque was built in 999 and is recognised as the oldest standing building in Toledo and one of the oldest in Spain. I don’t know for sure but it wouldn’t surprise me if this change of name also occured during or following a pogrom (this time against Islam).

My next planned visit was to the Iglesia de Santa Tome (Saint Thomas’s). My interest in this relatively small and unassuming church was one of El Greco’s more famous paintings – The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. It’s impressive but it doesn’t rate among my favourites.

I did get to see a fair few other places while wandering Toledo and all but one impressed me. It was the Plaza de Zocodover which disappointed me. I’d read so many positive things about the square (e.g. it has long been the social hub of the city and the liveliest of places) and was really looking forward to sitting on a terrace, people watching, over a glass or two of wine. It just didn’t work for me and I think it us because this part of the city has more than it’s fair share of souvenir shops and far too many tourists. It is inevitable that a city with all the attractions Toledo has and being so close to Madrid (it’s little more than half an hour by train) will attract numerous tourists and, hey, I’m one but; what gets my goat are those many small groups of people, with absolutely no spacial awareness, following men and women waving umbrellas or flags in the air who suddenly stop and block the city’s narrow winding streets without consideration for anyone else.

 The walled city is very touristy and it contains an abundance of shops selling nothing but marzipan (which I did rather like the look of but how do they survive?) and; a great many souvenir shops selling tin suits of armour and toy knives (which, I suppose are intended to pay homage to Toledo’s famous steel). More interesting is the city’s preoccupation with Manchego Cheese. The city even has a Manchego Museum (the Museo del Queso Manchego Toledo), so concerned are they to promote and preserve the many different varieties of this local cheese, and the museum offers cheese tastings complete with local wines. It’s a rhetorical question but, how often have we attended wine tasting with cheese being used to enhance the taste of the wine as against our attending a cheese tasting session where the wine is simply used as a palate cleanser? There’s a turnaround.

Overall, I really like Toledo. There are so many interesting monuments to see and the city has a lovely feel about it (notwithstanding all the tourists). We’d have liked to stay longer but the walled city is on a hill and there are a great many staircases and steep slopes which Nala (in her wheels) would find difficult to negotiate. There are some strategically placed escalators and at least one elevator but, even so, the narrow crowded lanes would cause her a problem.

A pleasant and abiding memory of our all too short visit to Toledo will be of Vanya and I sitting on the porch of the bar back at the El Greco campsite on our last night, with wine in hand, gazing at the city’s skyline and watching the many different monuments light up as darkness descended.

Once again on the road to Toledo, we paused briefly at the small town of Alcazar de San Juan in the Province of Ciudad Real. I wanted to climb the small hill at the edge of the town to properly view it’s four giant windmills while Vanya wanted to replenish the Van’s supplies. A win-win situation? Vanya will think not but she was happy to indulge me and off I set up the San Anton Hill just outside of Alcazar. I say ‘walk’ but a real hoolie was blowing and at the top of the hill it was more a crawl. The last time I experienced wind like that was in the 1990’s on one of Scotland’s finest mountains, An Teallach.

At one time, Alcázar had 19 windmills (14 of them on the San Anton Hill) and 9 watermills and these were the area’s principal source of energy. They were used mostly for traditional milling. Drought during the 15th and 16th centuries caused them to become unusable and most were lost. Just four windmills were still working up until the 1940’s when they too were abandoned. These 4 four mills, each with it’s own name (Fierebras, Barcelona, Rocinante and Barataria) have since been restored and nowhere is that more fitting than in the land of Cervante’s ‘Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha’ (not forgetting his squire Sancho Panza). Ordinarily the Rocinante would be open to visitors interested in learning how these monster windmills worked but it was closed to the public as I arrived, probably because of the strong winds. Certainly, I was the only one on the hill that day.  

And in the town, next to the Ayuntamiento (the town hall), statues commemorating ‘The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha’.

On to Toledo…

So, it was time to chill in yet another of Vanya’s boutique hotels. The one she found this time was the Hotel Restaurant Bodega La Venta which is situated in a remote part of Cuenca Province about 41 miles north west of Albacete. It appeared to meet most of her qualifying criteria (e.g. it has to be different, special if you like; it has to be good value for money; it must be pet friendly and not charge ludicrously high pet premiums; it must have nearby & secure parking for the Van; it should, ideally, be en route to our target destination which on this occasion was Toledo; it should have nearby places of interest to visit; etc). To find a hotel which meets all her criteria in such a remote part of Spain was never going to be easy but, the Hotel Restaurant Bodega La Venta looked promising… except that, just prior to our arrival, a disaster struck the whole of the Iberian Peninsula which would impact on us throughout our stay.

As we arrived early during the afternoon of 28 April 2025 a power outage, described as one of the worst ever in Europe, struck the Iberian Peninsula. The blackout disrupted key infrastructure across almost all of Spain and Portugal affecting public transportation, traffic signals, cellular networks, digital payment systems, nuclear power facilities, hospitals, businesses and all other critical infrastructure. It lasted almost 2 days in some parts of Spain and affected tens of millions of people across almost the whole of the Peninsula (except Gibraltar which is not on the European Grid). It would have been longer had France and Morocco not activated emergency links to provide some electricity.

Vanya and I were very lucky. Being in a hotel with it’s own emergency generators, we were protected from the worst effects of the outage. It was bad enough that the Internet wasn’t working, the banking systems were down and our ‘phones had no signal but; we were together in a safe place and had light, heating, hot water and hot food when we required it. Equally important, we had occasional access to TV and radio news programmes (the hotel generators were on part time to preserve fuel) and so had some idea as to what was happening across the country. Imagine how awful it must have been for all those people who were isolated (perhaps trapped in lifts or on the metro or stranded on trains in the middle of nowhere or simply in gridlocked traffic because the nation’s traffic lights had all failed) and with no idea as to what was happening and no means of contacting anyone.

Some of the news we did pick up on was disturbing. It was clear the government had no idea as to what caused the outage and speculation was rife with the more lurid TV channels suggesting the outage was a cyber attack by Russia; others that it was because of Grid Stability issues caused by Spain’s and Portugal’s over-reliance on renewable energy sources. Spain and Portugal are leaders in solar and wind power generation with more than half their energy coming from renewable sources and I am therefore more inclined towards the latter view but; even now, 10 days after the event (as I write this blog), no one has yet determined the cause. Even more disturbing news coming through at the time was that panic buying of drinking water was occuring on a scale not seen since the Covid epidemic (of course, it had to be paid for by cash as the banking system had failed) and; even worse, looting was taking place in some areas. Like I said, we were fortunate; being in a well stocked hotel with sympathetic and trusting management.

Fortunately, power was restored within a couple of days but the situation prompted us, for the most part, to sit tight in the hotel instead of making our planned day trips out to the stately renaissance town of Saint Clement and/or the medieval town of Alarcon and/or Belmonte Castle. We made just one trip out, to Albacete in the neighbouring province, for supplies we would need once normality returned.

Okay, enough about the outage. I’ll write a little about the Hotel Restaurant Bodega La Venta. The hotel was built on the site of an 18th century inn which was later converted into an oil mill and then, at the turn of the 19th century, into a wine cellar. I don’t think the current owners have held the place for very long but they have already earned an enviable reputation as a restaurant and more recently developed the hotel side of the business. It currently has 28 well appointed standard rooms and 2 suites; all at reasonable prices. We took one of the suites because it would be easier for Nala to move around in.

As we arrived at the hotel, my first thought was one of disappointment. It appeared more like a motel than a boutique hotel. The bar at the front of the building looked closed. The reception area was only part lit and there was a marked absence of staff as we entered. When the duty manager finally showed his face, I thought him offhand and rude. Of course, I was unaware the national power outage had just struck and he and the rest of the hotel’s staff were busy responding to that situation. Once the hotel’s emergency generators were up and running and we were checked in, I changed my mind. The hotel looked fine and the staff proved very welcoming, especially the chamber maid (who, of her own initiative, promptly rearranged the room’s furniture to better suit Nala and her wheels) and one of the restaurant waitresses (who organised some drinks and hot tapas for us in the lobby – this is Spain and dogs aren’t generally allowed in the restaurants). I changed my mind completely when we ate the restaurant’s tapas. The food (and the wine) was fantastic.

On Facebook entry that day, I described the hotel as looking like something out of a High Chaparral episode. That was unfair. Yes, it has many features to be found in a 19th century western style hacienda but these features lend it real character and are to be expected of a genuine 18th century Spanish Inn / 19th century Bodega in what was (and probably still is) one of the more remote and wilder parts of Spain.

I’ll leave it for now with some photos (some taken from the hotel web site because it wasn’t always light enough for my photos to work)…