Day 46: Toledo

  Today we train to Toledo for the day- the old capital of Madrid. What an interesting place. There were three events i suppose to separate the eras in Toledo. First the community was Jewish so there is some evidence of Jewish buildings in the town. For example there are scratched out engravings where Jewish writings were written across the doors of houses. And some Jewish influenced architecture. But in the 15th century the Christians took over. And if you didn't convert to Christianity you were kicked out of Spain. So many families now are trying to trace back to see if they were actually Jewish decent. And some when they found they were tried to come back to Toledo to claim land. Some people find that they practice other Jewish traditions but are christian- indicating that they were forced to change somewhere down the line.  We met a man in a shop toward the end of the day who took us on a private tour- mainly because he wanted to set Eliza up with his son in Portugal... Anyway he worked for the council in Toledo. He was Jewish but his family had converted to Christian during the inquisition. He showed us the houses where Christians had scraped away the Jewish writing and the house of the richest Jew in Toledo at that time. He was so rich he had his own Rabi in his house! It was an absolutely ridiculous house.  Toledo was very pretty and there were gorgeous old ruins and castles all around the city even outside the city. But it was full of tourists. No one really lives there and there is only one school and university. Many of the houses are for sale and no one is buying them.  We visited the mosques and saw stunning views, ate Spanish omelettes in bocadillas (rolls),  almost got locked on the university and almost missed our train back to Madrid. All in all it was a wonderful interesting history -filled day.  That evening I sat drinking 3.50 euro vino with a bunch of American, welsh, French and British travelers. We shared stories and advice and then hit the town true Spain style- going out at 1 am getting home at 6.30. However I missed the part where you have a sleep in and only managed 2 hours sleep...