Holy Toledo!

If you haven't got to the amazing city of Toledo yet, then I suggest you make this your next Spanish city that you visit. It took my breath away. The history, the buildings, the layout of the city, the landscape surrounding the city was beautiful. Make sure that after you have walked around the city, take a drive around the outer part of the old town also as we found little spots that we didn't see on foot. Toledo was built on a hill with a river flowing around most of it.

Toledo is known as the 'Imperial City' and when you look at the travel guides, you can see that this place is a very religious one. Now, I am not normally into the history of places as I prefer just to stand there with my mouth open looking at the amazing architecture, but this city has so much to read up on and I for one was glued!

One of the highlights for the 'boys' in my family was the amount of shops that sold Swords, guns, knifes and anything else shiny. To warn you, they were EVERYWHERE! OK, I did buy a couple of things too as most of them had lovely pottery in them and most of them made in Toledo. BUT if you have limited time, then you had to make sure that you didn't spend too much time in these shops.

A couple of hints for this wonderful place.

• Wear comfortable shoes. Because of it being so old, most of the paths were made of round stones so it was very bumpy on the feet. Sports shoes were the go.
• Don't be afraid to get lost in the old town. You will come across some really cool buildings, streets, shops, different scenery shots. It isn't that big so you will get back on track really quickly!
• Also, It might pay to try and get a hotel just out of the old town. The roads are very narrow and you might find yourself listening to the numerous tourist buses going past your window. We stayed about 5 minutes walk from the old town gates at Hisperia Hotel and it was very nice. Definitely recommend it.
• When it comes to shopping, if you have time, work out want you want but don't buy it straight away. You can almost guarantee that the shop a few blocks away has it for a good 30 euros cheaper. Sometimes the nicer the shop, the dearer it is.
• It is about 360 kms from Valencia so it does pay to spend a couple of days there to make it worth while. We had two nights and almost 2 full days which was a good amount.
• About 170 kms from Valencia heading to Toledo (or Madrid and Cuenca), there was a great shop to stop at for food (lots of it), coffee or just a run around if you have a packed picnic (a few picnic tables). It is on the rise of a hill on the right hand side and it was called Area 170. It has an adjoining petrol station and off the same turn off, a hotel. I think it was one of the only smoke free eating areas and it also had a microwave for heating food, highchair and nappy changing area in the loos.

Bridget Baker