Holy Toledo!

Do you know where the saying, "Holy Toledo" came from? Well, Toledo had an educated, wealthy and cosmopolitan Jewish community...called Sephardic Jews. These Jews eventually immigrated to America and brought along that expression because to them Toledo was the holiest Jewish City in Europe!

Did you also know that Toledo used to be the Capital of Spain? And that it is a walled city?

They even had a river that served as a moat but they still have water problems to this day.

Toledo's craftsmen produce a Gold Inlaid Design applied to Steel and then fired in a Kiln for strength. The items are produced using 24kt gold thread or gold leaf. They really catch your eye as the gold shines brightly against the black steel. They are also noted for their sword making. There is also lots of Mazapan shops around the Plaza's...had to try it but it didn't grab our taste buds.

We were lucky to find a place to stay since it was a last minute decision to go to Toledo and it was a holiday weekend...Columbus Day. We used our Rick Steve's guide and called the Hostal Del Cardenal. Yes, they had a room and we got the 5% discount for using the Rick Steve's guide. So for only $85 Euros per night we were good to go. The best thing about it was that it turned out to be a 17th Century Cardinal's Palace built into Toledo's wall. And....get this, the walk up the big hill into town was simplified for us. There were five or six escalators all the way up to town from outside our hotel door since it was located at the old wall entrance.

Don't you just love how the Spanish men all get together in the Plaza's (see the photo of them lined up on the wall)! We took the Tourist Train around and got some great "outside of the wall" shots of town. We visited the Cathedral which was one of the best we've seen in Europe so far...and believe me, we've seen a lot of them. We visited the Victorio Macho Museum. He was a well known sculpturist (see photo of old lady and me). We wanted to see some of El Greco's work but everywhere we went the location was being renovated so we saw none of them.