April 16, 1994

Breakfast at the Hotel Madrid consisted of 1 croissant, a hard roll, and crackers.

The sky was clear, but it was cold and windy. We took the train to Toledo, 57 miles south-southwest of Madrid, and saw fields of red poppies enroute. At the train station, we were surprised to see a beer machine right next to the Coke machine.

The town of Toledo, where Visigoth and Moorish conquerors ruled, was great. One of the first things we saw were street performers dressed in costumes sitting in front of the local McDonalds. We saw cute passageways and there were narrow cobblestone streets. All of the roofs were made of pinkish tile. We saw the Alcazar, the city's 13th century fortress with origins back to the 3rd century, when it served as a praetorian palace during the Roman period.

We went to the cathedral, its first stone beinglaid in 1226, where they hang the cardinal's hat when he dies. Spanish primates are buried where they choose, with the epitaph they choose, and with their hat hanging above them, where it stays until it rots. In the cathedral, there were well over 20 chapels around the walls. There were also fine tombs. In the treasury, a solid silver repository for Eucharistic wafers was 9 feet tall and weighed 440 pounds.

We also went to the El Greco House and Museum, which houses 22 paintings by El Greco.

Under the Romans, Toledo was an invaluable stronghold of great strategic importance, minting its own coinage and boasting an aqueduct. In 1085, it fell to the Christians and became Spain's Imperial City. El Cid was its first governor.

THE UGLY- There was no place to buy bread; trying to make train reservations; the weather; and we got lost multiple times because the maps here were practically useless.