One of the castles viewable from Toledo. As we would discover, Spain is lousy with castle.
Toledo is one of Spain's most historically important cities. Geographically smack dab in the middle of the Iberian peninsula, it has been an important settlement since the time of the Romans, and was on several occasions capital of Castile and a place of paramount importance for the participants in the Reconquista. Toledo also served as a place of learning: Arab libraries were preserved here instead of burned when the Christians re-took the town, and for a time, Muslims, Jews, and Christians got along in relative peace in the already-old city. This of course couldn't last - the Jews and Muslims were expelled during the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, the court of Castile was moved away, and the city experienced a considerable decline in its importance. Today it's a beautiful, calm, and surprisingly un-touristed city, and it's difficult for the tourist to grasp its incredible importance in Spanish history from the face it presents today.
The sword of El Cid may be purchased in marzipan form.
Our first stop was the Santa Cruz Museum, located in the old Santa Cruz Hospital. The museum hosts a good collection of and exhibit on the work of El Greco, especially valuable since the actual El Greco museum is closed. It's located in a historic building that used to be (among other things) a nunnery and also features a killer view of the plains below the city. It's worth a look.
The Cathedral from the street.
Next we walked to Toledo Cathedral - a pleasant stroll through Toledo's impossibly narrow and cobblestoned streets, past hundreds of marzipan-shops and knife sellers, past t-shirt stands and extremely impressive cookie shops. I was surprised to see almost no tourists during our visit to Toledo - has the recession scared them away from Toledo specifically, does it not offer dancing dolphins and lobster buffets and paella feeds like the Costa Brava? Is it ever overrun entirely with tourists, do shipments of nuns come in from Chile or wherever, do companies hold sassy scavenger hunts in these eternal streets? You have to wonder. Come visit: you'll feel pleasantly alone.
Toledo Cathedral is an iconic structure in Spain, a region with a profusion (some might say embarassment) of cathedrals. The Mozarabic rite, instituted by Christians under Moorish rule, is still celebrated here, an interesting throwback from the days when the Moors decisively held the Peninsula. Begun in 1226 and finished in 1493, the Cathedral is considered the pinnacle of the Gothic style, and contains within its holding some astonishing works of art, antiques, and other valuables.
To be inside the church is in itself an experience - the lightly colored walls, the incredibly ornate ceiling, and the general aura of both light and incredible age within produce a potent combination. The weight of both ages and Spain's relationship with Catholicism can truly be felt here.
The Sacristy is perhaps the cathedral's biggest draw for the non-religious: the annex to the church contains incredible paintings and an interesting display of tapestries and priests vestments from *very* far back, including an Arab battle standard. El Greco, Van Dyck, Goya, Luis de Morales and other big-names are on display, in a rather sedate and delightfully faded environment as compared to some of the large museums.
The cathedral's Lion Door.
Another shot of same.
My favorite aspect of the cathedral is undoubtedly El Transparente, a Baroque altarpiece located in the relative middle of the cathdral. I never got the Jesus bug but this is an amazing piece of work - a host of writhing and life-like angles and cherubs rise up from the floor and towards the ceiling. A hole was cut here to allow light to pass onto the tabernacle and it's a hell of a spiritual effect - you stand in the exact right spot below the light, and look up, and you get the distinct sensation that you are looking into heaven. All this created to hide a skylight.
For lunch, we decided to return to La Abadia because the tapas had been so enjoyable. Since lunch is the main meal of the day in Spain, we opted to eat downstairs in the wine-cellar like interior room. In the powerful heat of a Toledo afternoon, it was an excellent place to be. One of the appeals of new Spanish cuisine to me is its daring and inventive nature. I enjoy Italian food and I appreciate the motive behind its passionate protection of its traditions. But Spanish food is less tied to the old school and old ways and is now praised around the world for its inventiveness - it's still the epicenter of molecular gastronomy and other incredible culinary innovations. Even small restaurants in small communities often feature extremely sophisticated food and plating choices in Spain, combined with excellent ingredients - the combination produces an incredible profusion of choices for the foodie traveler. Not to mention it's all a hell of a lot cheaper then Italy.
We started with the Degustación de Ensaladas (8.50). First salad was caesar with goat cheese and green tomato - delicious, slightly garlic-and-anchovy flavored. Liked the chewy strip of cheese on top as well. Second was octopus with mango, pomegranate, and citrus dressing - a nice and fresh example of Spain's long-term love affair with pulpo. Last was pulled chicken with sweet tomato confit over a bed of greens - not cloyingly sweet and very well done.
My main was the Lomo de Bacalo ($14.50), with confit of peppers and corn mash. Bacalo (cod) is Spain's fish of choice, consumed the country over and cooked in a dizzying variety of ways. Many Americans regard cod with suspicion - it being the favorite fish of nightmarish school canteens and fish-stick vendors - but cod is treated with respect and affection in Spain. The firm fish was cooked perfectly, and I particularly liked the tangle of blackened onions on top. The red pepper pistou was tasty as well, though I would have preferred more of it. The corn mush was non-descript.
My dad chose the the merluza (hake) al horno with clams (13.50), in a distinctive green onion sauce. A visually arresting dish, the flavor was also excellent - the combination of firm white fish, perfectly cooked little clams, and dense green onions was a pretty inspired one. A dish this green might be initially off-putting but the powerful onion flavor immediately justified (and made pleasing) the appearance.
My mom had a seafood skewer with squid and prawns (11.50), accompanied by house-made potato chips. This was delicious. Excellent Spanish prawns (the Spanish do a fiine prawn) with cleverly cooked squid - it was so tender that the standard and not always welcome squid chewiness had been eliminated. The seafood sauce was a nice and subtle accompaniment to the seafood. The house made chips were also excellent - Kettle Chips, watch your asses.
After lunch, we decided to visit the Torture Museum. The Inquisition,instituted during the reign of Isabella and Ferdinand, tormented and oppressed the entire peninsula under the standard of Catholicism, creating an aura of paranoia, scientific and intellectual stagnation, and terror - a collective disease that would not abate from the peninsula until modern times. Incidentally, the Inquisition also produced some bitching torture devices. The museum in Toledo seems to be set up in conjunction with Amnesty International, an international anti-torture organization, which is doubtless a good thing.
Some flails, for the always necessary utility of rending flesh from bones. These were of great utility when bringing order to seething prisons full of infidels, so the wall label told us.
A French iron maiden, or that is what they told us. The spikes are strategically placed to allow maximal access to the victims most sensitive regions. The Inquisition thought of everything!
Women inclined to talk too much would be fitted with these delightful iron masks, which would slowly starve the victim to death or kill them by infection - whatever came first. It's thought the masks also served as a healthy deterrent for uppity women - women with opinions weren't exactly popular in Inquisition era Spain (not that they were in most places, really, until the modern era).
Wrongdoers and/or Jews might be forced to wear this hood and cap, which would be marked with the particular details of their crime. They would be forced to wear the outfit until they died. Charming.
When they speak of Breaking Someone on the Wheel they are presumably talking about this beauty here. Insofar as I am aware the bones were not real.
The Inquisition was known for condemning someone and holding them for indefinite periods without telling them what they had done wrong. Imagine you are in that position: you are summoned from your hovel (kissing your children and goat goodbye,) appear before a stern and corpulent court, who stare you directly in the eye and consign you to punishment for something, you are led away - and they decide to slap you into one of these delightful hanging baskets, a sort of open-air decoration for horrendous medieval regimes. The baskets were brilliantly engineered to ensure the victim could never get any rest, for fear of falling through the bottom slats and smashing to death on the ground below - ensuring the condemned would remain entirely awake and conscious until vultures or starvation carried them off, all the while enduring the jeers and open-mouthed stares of the people who would pass below on their everyday (and free) activities. Almost enough to put me off my food. Well, almost.
We returned to the hotel and relaxed. Spain's heat is extremely similar to that of California: dry as hell, dusty as hell, and eminently reasonable when compared to the suicide and tropical-malaise inducing misery of, say, Rome or Mumbai. Spanish people take some pride in their hot summers and would occasionally comment to us, "It's so hot here, it's terribly hot, I bet you're not used to this." Wherein we would reply, with our own source of crappy-weather induced pride, "It gets hotter in Sacramento. " Which it does - of course, this kind of escalation of miserable weather can turn into the most asinine arguments known to man, can simply dive-bomb any sort of intellectual discussion - but that never happened. I suppose living in Mumbai, Yakutsk (Siberia) or Iraq might give you a healthy sense of comfort and pride in the reality that your weather truly *is* among the most horrid in the world.
For dinner, we decided to do tapas. Bar Ludena was supposed to have the best carcamusas in town but they were closed, the dogs, the disreputables (or they were taking advantage of Europe's incredibly humane vacation customs). We shrugged and decided to visit another tapas bar, the name of which I cannot recall at this time, but was strikingly decorated with paper-machie replicas of hams.
We ordered a smoked fish platter. Smoked fish is divine in Spain, as are most fish products if you get right down to it, and this was no exception - a sort of sashmi platter diluted through the Iberian peninsula. Great with plenty of dill, especially the salmon, always I love the salmon.
These are carcamusas, Toledo's typical pork-tomato-spices stew, and my is it good. Tender falling apart bits of pork in a piquant and resolutely Spanish sauce - gotta learn how to make this stuff. Order this a lot if you go to Toledo and you will be happy.
We shrugged and went to La Abadia one last time. Not too hungry - and hell, they gave us free tortilla anyway- we ordered one thing. Went for the table of ham and cheese, which in Spain is an involved and attractive affair. Iberian ham is butch, the flavor will knock you on your ass, it is not for everyone, but I happen to find it very appealing indeed, especially when served with the quince and saffron jelly that appears everywhere in Spain. Good manchego also can be a revelation (although so much crap manchego exists) - with marcon almonds, pig, and dried meat, divine. The tabla also had goat cheese with a crunchy caramelized crust and an uber rich sort of cheese soup- excellent bar snacks.
Town below Toledo's main hill at night.
Night time. We would drive to Avila the next day.
