Toledo

My final weekend of gadding around the northern Spanish countryside had arrived and we certainly couldn’t have chosen a better place to finish. We were headed to Toledo, just south of Madrid and only an hour and a half drive from Madrid airport. Toledo used to be the capital of the old empire of Castile and was once one of the most important cities in the Moorish rule of Spain. It was conquered again by the Christians in 1085. However, its cobbled streets are littered with evidence of the cultural diversity that has been prevalent throughout much of the town’s history as it is full of churches, mosques and synagogues.

The drive into Toledo is one of the most dramatic I have ever done, particularly as we arrived at night. As you approach from the flat desolate landscape of Castilla La Mancha surrounding it, the centre of the town appears on a hill ahead surrounded by its huge city walls, the city gates silhouetted against the dark sky. From the bottom of the town you can take a series of escalators all the way to the up – I imagine it is to save the legs of the poor coach loads of tourists that descend on the city in summer time. Instead we meandered up the steep streets, through the city walls and passed under the city gates which are well turreted and built in a distinctly Moorish style. One of the most famous buildings in Toledo is the Alcazar, a fortress looming huge over the town. It is entirely disproportionate to the size of the town and, in fact, looks almost comically gigantic and particularly as it is plonked on the highest point of the town.

The cathedral is another of Toledo’s key buildings; an enormous Gothic edifice that vies with the Alcazar to dominate the skyline. The streets around the cathedral are narrow and plentiful; they hardly allow you to appreciate the beauty of the building towering above. However, once inside, the size and importance of it becomes clear as every conceivable corner, alcove or chapel has been decorated intricately. The cathedral also houses a decent collection of art including El Greco (of course), Velázquez, Goya and Caravaggio. It is not only stunning for its wealth of religious masterpieces but also because of its appearance of having been hanging on the wall of some great but forgotten house, frames slightly crooked and pictures jumbled together on the wall. It was still quite a sight.

One of Toledo’s most famous exports (next to Toledo steel!) is El Greco and evidence of his art and inspiration is everywhere. His paintings are housed all over Toledo, not just in the cathedral, but elsewhere too, with seemingly almost every church having managed to get their hands on at least one. But the influence of the city on his art is what I loved the most as it is clear that you are standing in the city that he painted. This is even more so at night when the closed-in empty streets are lit by weak yellow light from the lanterns hanging everywhere. However, Toledo does have another side to it that really reflects the fact that Toledo is one of the major tourist attractions in Spain. In the centre the streets are full of lively bars, restaurants and taverns clustered on every corner, terrace tables and all, even in the zero degree weather. There is everything from traditional wood lined restaurants with huge jamons and beers, to a fine selection of modern tapas and an even finer selection of Spain’s wines.

The morning after a healthy tasting of Toledo’s fare and it was on with the sightseeing. Toledo also has two ancient synagogues that are open to the public, the Sinagoga Santa Maria La Blanca and the Sinagoga del Tránsito. As is clear from their names, they were taken over by the Christians that reconquered Toledo. As if to reinforce this fact, a nun and a monk work the crowds in Sinagoga Santa Maria La Blanca. In fact, both synagogues fail to look either like a synagogue or a church but instead look distinctly like mosques, their style very much influenced by the Moorish architecture prevalent all over Toledo. There are also a number of mosques, including the 10^th century Mesquita Cristo de la Luz.

We finished off our tour of Toledo by crossing the river that flows in the plunging gorge below Toledo. On the other side is Toledo’s Parador hotel perched on the hill top across the valley from the city, placed perfectly to tempt the visitor in for a cup of tea. The view of Toledo makes you realise that every inch of space has been built upon as the place teems with spires, towers and glittering roofs.

Ribera del Duero – a wine weekend

There is no doubt that one of the key wine making regions in Spain is Ribera del Duero, located northwest of Madrid in Castilla y Leon. Not surprising then that I was pretty excited to be visiting it, particularly as a fair proportion of the wines I had been drinking since arriving in Spain were from Ribero del Duero.

We were staying in the town of El Burgo de Osma just east of the main wine growing area, an ancient town alongside the Río Duero. It is not more than 2 hours from Madrid airport, a dramatic drive through the mountains of the Sierra de Guadarrama. It certainly turned out to be more dramatic than we had bargained for: as soon as we started to ascend the mountain roads, thick fog and rain appeared around us so we could barely see a few metres in front of the car. Once we had escaped that, some strange moving orange lights appeared in the distance – it only became clear when we practically on top of them that it was a police roadside stop. It was turning out to be a bit of an epic journey.

However, one sentence from us gave away the fact that we weren’t Spanish and we were sent on our way. Finally we arrived in Burgo de Osma and, after some comic driving up one way pedestrian zones, we found the hotel. It was closed for the night. A call to the pretty sleepy, and less than impressed, proprietor, and we were finally in.

Saturday morning: it was time to start the well earned wine tour. The wine region itself is spread out along the Río Duero and its fertile plains. The majority of the bodegas in the Ribera del Duero are found around Aranda del Duero, which is a fairly industrial town, and Peñafiel. This was where we started.

Like many of the towns in Castilla y Leon, it is perched on a hill, the town spread below a towering castle. In this case, the castle also houses the region’s wine museum, an incredibly comprehensive education on wine, where it comes from, how it is made, aged and served. For me, the best part was a huge selection of jars of essence which represented the most commonly found aromas in wine: you had to take a sniff and guess the aroma. Fun for hours!

From Peñafiel we drove along the river, either side covered in vines variously planted and pruned. On the way, we checked out some of the many bodegas. Although we were visiting after the harvest, the beauty was not lost as the vine leaves had turned orange and the few lone bunches of grapes that had been left on almost glowed purple against the autumnal background.

We stopped off in the village of Peñaranda de Duero, a short drive off the main road. It is a wonderful place with bars and cafes tumbling into each other and onto the main plaza. We arrived at sunset and the whole place seemed to be on fire from the colours in the sky.

The next day was a day for looking around Burgo de Osma itself, a beautiful town with a huge ornate cathedral out of all proportion to the size of the town. Around the cathedral is a misshapen plaza, surrounded by buildings which overhang and are supported by large wooden props. Along the narrow main street are a number of boutique food and wine shops selling the region’s goodies which really show off the town’s true focus.

At the end is a beautiful Plaza Mayor, lined by cute cafes and the former town hospital, dating from 1699. You can imagine that in the summer, this would be the perfect place for a glass of wine on the terrace to watch the world go by.

We finished off in one of the bodegas near Aranda del Duero, Cepa 21, which also has a lovely restaurant with views over the extensive vineyards around the bodega. After a tour of their very modern facilities, we settled in for a 5 course lunch of fantastic food. Luckily, as the non-driver, I could also indulge in trying some of their wines with the food. The drive back to Madrid certainly seemed less stressful!