Holy Toledo and Beyond!

Toledo's Alcazar fortress and walled city the 1st Capital of Spain

Leaving Valencia was difficult after such a nice time there. It is a place we will come back to again for sure.

As we catch the A3 motorway toward Madrid and pass the Valencia airport we see a large volume of black smoke coming from the runway. As we pass by closer we see large flames but then almost as quickly as it appeared it was gone.

Motoring north on the A3 we travel through some very picturesque landscapes of rolling fields and valleys. On the Spain highway system with no traffic to speak of we are 80 kms out from our destination of Toledo  in pretty short order. I make a turning error which takes us on a bit of a 5 km detour and one of the prettiest you could imagine. Hidden in all these fields of wheat and oats are secret little vineyards and orchards. It was very neat and we stop to admire them and eat the last of our Valencia oranges.

Our arrival in Toledo is just after 1:00pm. And it is 31C as we pull into town. The streets of the old town where our preferred lodging is are super narrow and there are tour buses and people all over. Can you say Banff?? Oh no!

Fortunately we find our Hotel right away and after a quick shower we scout out the big meal for the day, which ends up going to the Aquarium restaurant which next to our hotel. Menu of the day  is, Sandra chooses Gespacho soup while I go for the venison and mushroom stew for starters, and then roast lamb, potatoes and veggies for the main course and a caramelized sauce on a custard for dessert, plus red wine and a sparkling soda, all for 12E/per. Amazingly good taste and great value.

Santa Cruz courtyard

We then scout out the sites to see here from the cathedral, to the Alcazar fortress and the Santa Cruz museum which houses many El Greco art works. At about 5:00pm the town quietens down quite a bit as the tour busses must return to Madrid, an 85 km drive away. Since we saw the cathedral in Valencia with its priceless art works we opted to skip this one. Also we know we’ll be seeing the monastery in El Elscorial tomorrow. It’s just not worth seeing them all.


The art works are housed in a 16th century hospital which was very impressive. El Greco’s works are sombre toned homage to Christ and his mother Mary.

After touring the old core and the Zocodover plaza we realize even ,more that the restaurant we ate at 2 streets over was a lot better offering for a meal. It is true that in all these tour places the main street vendors are there for location not quality.

Toledo is elevated and surrounded by the Tagos river and the rolling countryside around makes for some pleasant views. The next morning we decided to get our scenery pics in utilizing the morning sun and beside our new pic of us with the bike we got a nice one of the town from across the river.

We now are headed to el Escorial where the monastery there (San Lorenzo) is the largest and most important in Spain since all the kings and queens are buried there, the Hapsburgs stayed there while they were courting, and the kings amassed huge art collections and libraries. In the Basilica while we were there was first communion for all the small 10 year olds. Still a very time enriched process there.


The route we selected to ride was N403 to Maqueda, then M501/512 to El Escorial. This is motorcycle heaven. The Spanish countryside of farmland and rolling hills gives way to pine forests and then climbs up and down through some lower mountains and valleys. The scent from the pine trees was incredible as well as the flowers that grow by the road. Poppies are everywhere as well, they must be a weed here. Soon the motorcycles begin coming our way as they emerge from Madrid for the Saturday morning rides. It was fun to be amongst them and they seemed to take notice our our BC Lic plates and Canada flags. And these roads are almost perfectly built with great paved surfaces, and except for the hairpins turns there are rarely any unexpected reducing radius turns. My speeds could have been stratospheric if it weren’t for the traffic and my desire to be more conservative with tire wear here.

Next onto Segovia!