Madrid; Monday, 12 June, 2006

After checking out of the hotel, I caught the metro over to Atocha station to put my bags into left luggage. Unfortunately, I was a couple of minutes late getting up so I didn’t get to the station in time to catch the train to Toledo and there was a 90 minute wait until the next train.

I decided, rather than wait around at the station, I would catch the tube back up to Colon and from there visit the wax museum.

The museum is similar to wax museums the world over, large number of ancient historical figures (recognised a few), famous historical Spanish figures (only recognised a couple – and only from pictures in other places like the royal palace), current famous Spaniards (very few recognised) and other famous people (recognised most). There is also the chamber of horrors and the crime gallery.

After spending nearly an hour in the wax museum, I caught the train back to Atocha, brought my tickets to Toledo and went to catch the train. In March 2004, Atocha became indelibly linked to terrorism when a series of bombs exploded on trains killing nearly 200 and injuring thousands. Today there are no physical signs of the damage, but access to the long distance and high-speed trains is now through airport style security putting your bags through a scanner people being randomly stopped.

The guidebooks all seamed to be a little confused over how to get to Toledo. The Lonely Planet says that there are only 5 trains a day and they take over 90 minutes. The footprint guide says there are trains every 2 hours or so and take about 90 minutes. In reality, there are trains every 90 minutes and they take 30 minutes (quite a difference when you only have a couple of hours before you have to get to the airport.) The confusion probably stems from the fact that Toledo is now on the Ave network of high-speed trains. Consequently, 30 minutes after leaving Madrid and 70 KM away the train pulled into Toledo station.

The station itself is some way away from the centre of the town (both horizontally and, more painfully, vertically) It took about 30 minutes to walk to the centre of the old town (though this did include several short water stops, lots of photo breaks and a short stop at a kiosk to pick up more water.

The city, once the capital of Spain, is stunning. With most of its medieval fortifications and walls still in place. On a hot summers day the heat and sunlight is reduced with canvas cloths hanging over the narrow passageways and lanes.

The most imposing structure in the city is the Cathedral, taking up a massive space from the outside, and seemingly even bigger inside. The inside is richly decorated with lots of sculptures, paintings and gold. Just off to one side of the main body of the cathedral is the cloister with its beautiful and tranquil garden and next to that is the treasury with even more gold!

After having spent some time in the cathedral, and about an hour wandering around the streets of the old town, it was time to wander back to the station and to catch the train back to Madrid. I picked up my luggage hopped on the metro and started the journey back to the airport taking in the Metro, replacement bus, Metro, bus route to Terminal 4 direct (which in the end was a lot faster than the journey in had been.)