Weather: 35º C and Sunny with some cloud

Mileage: 350 km; Total 4,265 kms

Off to Toledo today after breakfast at our usual place. They recognised us at the restaurant today as we got the same breakfast we had the last 2 days. Oh, that’s right, they only serve coffee, orange juice and toast for breakfast – total €7. Back to the hotel to check out and get instructions for leaving town. We will follow the instructions from the hotel as they gave us excellent instructions to find them and these narrow, windy, one way roads will be too much for Billy and Bruce – poor boys!

The trip was straight forward as expected. Very few places to call into and even see from a distance. As we got within 80 km of Toledo we passed the town of Consuegra, an agricultural town with a 12th century castle on a hill nearby, along with about 10 of the old type windmills. The windmills, originally used to grind grain, are now, and probably back then, more important to the town than the castle which was once the stronghold for the knights of San Juan. The windmills were first used in at least the 16th century and continued in use until the 1980s. We did not visit the town but did read a bit about it.

Entry into Toledo was a breeze. These streets would have been considered narrow by Bruce 4 weeks ago however after Cordoba anything would seem wide. The hotel is well located, near to many of the sites we want to see and only a 15 minute uphill walk to others.

By the time we checked in and got settled it was 3pm – time for lunch. We went next door to a restaurant only to find out that it was one that had a Michelin sign in the window. Didn’t notice this until we had ordered however the prices were not ridiculous and as it turned out the food was superb. We had a salad to share, Bruce had venison with vegetables and Anne had scallops and cuttlefish with squid ink risotto. Desert was a very rich chocolate cake for Anne and mandarin sorbet with strawberry foam for Bruce. We were also served a complimentary aperitif and hazelnut liqueur – yum. If this was lunch what is the dinner menu? – we may yet find out.

We had to walk off all of this so off we trotted in 35 degrees of heat to visit a synagogue, a monastery and a roman bridge – all within 10 minutes walk of our hotel.

The synagogue was a bit disappointing as it was no longer a working one. The inside of it however had many Moorish architectural elements. The San Juan de los Reyes Monasterio on the other hand was very interesting. A Franciscan monastery had a great cloisture with beautiful and unusual carvings as well as an impressive church. Ferdinand and Isabella were going to be buried there but this did not happen – not sure why.

From the convent we set off down the hill to the San Martin bridge built in the 14th century. This is not to be confused with the Roman bridge on the other side of the town.

No dinner tonight – still full from lunch. Talk to you tomorrow.

PS: Note – for those of you who think these churches are all the same, in one pillar in the cloister of the monastery we found a monkey sitting on a toilet reading the bible upside down. A guide book mentioned it and theorised that a stone carver had snuck it in for his own reasons.