Toledo: where medieval meets magical AND too many steps

 If I had to go back to Spain, I really wanted to get out of the major cities.  I learned Toledo was a 35 minute train ride from Madrid, and I knew that was where I would spend a day.   I was excited, as I had heard only good things about this medieval town.  The train ride was easy but it was absolutely full both ways.   We exited the small station and quickly realized there were no signs and literally just two major hills (small mountains) in front of us.   We started walking up a large hill and realized it was just beginning.   We stopped to take pictures at the city gate.   We then found the escalators to enter town.  No research had prepared me for the reality that this was an extremely active town with a lot of cars and trucks despite the tiny winding roads, nor did it prepare me that every other step was on cobblestones and up/down hill.   With the traffic, almost not walking paths, and severe hills the walking was actually quite difficult - and here I brought my small children and my mother.   One hour into the trip, I actually asked if we wanted to leave.   However, they soldiered on.    

We visited the still standing small Mosque (from the Islamic occupation of Spain) at one corner of the city and made to the center to stop for a snack.    We then walked over to city hall on our way to the main Cathedral.  This Cathedral began construction in the 1200s and was a religious site of worship for centuries before.   It had amazing paintings, treasures, gilded altarpieces and was large.  I couldn't help but to think that this place played a large role in the Inquisition as I walked the halls.   During this tour, my daughter and husband sat outside.  Again, this was a common theme of the trip and I secretly think Jordan loves an excuse not to see one more religious institution.   She danced the entire time to a violin player.   Loads of people stopped to speak to her in various languages and luckily this helped the violin player to increase tips.

After the Cathedral, we went to see the oldest surviving synagogue in the European Union.   The last church we visited was nice, but is known for its entrance having a painting by El Greco.  The painting was on an entire wall and due to simplicity of the church otherwise was moving.   

We finally found lunch on a big square and ate while locals lingered over their late lunch, cats sauntered around asking for scraps and I spoke my broken Spanish to get our order.  I did buy some marzipan as a souvenir as it originated in this town. 

We had to walk almost two miles back to the train station in a hurry, as we got the last four train tickets out of the city that afternoon.  We made it back to Madrid in one piece, but with extra soreness.  We decided to stick to other walled towns in our future.