Featured Photo: The bridge entrance to Toledo (one of two ancient bridges entering the city)

According to an old Spanish saying, until you’ve seen Toledo, you have not seen Spain. And the best way of doing this is by wandering its streets, taking part in the evening paseo or sitting over a drink and a tapa in its many bars and cafés.

Toledo is an ancient city set on a hill above the plains of Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain about 2 hours south of Madrid. One of the city’s most famous residents was El Greco who moved there in 1577 from Venice where he honed his “Mannerism” style of art. Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra) made Toledo famous in fiction with his historical novel, “Don Quixote”, which regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.


So what makes Toledo special? In 1968 I was hitchhiking (“auto-stop” outside North America) to Madrid from Granada, Spain. I was picked up by an overnight trucker who needed companionship during his daily 4 hour drive to Madrid. He told me I absolutely cannot go all the way to Madrid without stopping in Toledo. I agreed — so, he dropped me off on the edge of the city beside the old stone entrance bridge (on the right side of the photo above) at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning. Then I sat in the middle of that bridge and witnessed the sun rise over that incredible walled city. And, in 1968 I did not have a camera. On this return to Toledo, I did not arrive before sunrise but I had a camera and took a photo of that bridge and wandered around the city again. The other highlight photo is one of me beside the statue of Cervantes. My tour-guide, Vai, helped me relive this adventure from my youth.


Toledo Skyline: The Alcázar on the left and Cathedral on the right dominate the skyline