The last leg of our 10 days in Spain has us in Madrid for three days. I planed a day trip to Toledo and purchased round trip train tickets as I heard the later trains tend to sell out. I have booked a private tour with a local guide Adolfo from 10:30am to 1pm or so. I'm now thinking "maybe we should bring a change of clothes, a toothbrush and stay overnight" I saw a very reasonable Hostel Santo Tome for 65.00. Now i just need an 'excuse' to eat the return tickets: 30 euros and go back to Madrid the following morning.
Thoughts?
Posted by
Bainbridge Island
3288 posts
Are you certain the train tickets are not changeable?
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16068 posts
I don't know how to give you an excuse to stay a night in Toledo, other than the fact that Toledo is a beautiful medieval town which is very quaint especially at night when day tour groups are gone.
However I'll give you an excuse to hit your head on a wall when I tell you that the full fare ticket (on the AVANT Medium Distance high speed trains) from Toledo to Madrid is only 12.90 Euro (about $14) one way and therefore if you paid 30 euro each way, somebody made some easy bucks at your expense.
Posted by
OP
34 posts
Thanks! the 30 euros was for the three of us! it's really not about the money. I have heard the city is quite different at night which is why I'm leaning toward staying
Posted by
northern CA
2766 posts
Toledo is indeed different at night. Consider that the fast, cheap train and nearby residential development has not only made it a daytripper stop, where people literally get on one of the buses lined up at the station, walk a standard circuit between Zocodover and the Cathedral, eat, shop, and get back on the train, but that it also means that Madrilenos who can afford it use the area as a bedroom community -- and they therefore have the wherewithal to patronize upscale up-to-the-minute taverns and clubs in the evenings when they have the place to themselves. So it becomes a cool combination of old cosmopolitan architecture and modern cosmopolitan consumption. US comparables would be Georgetown or Salem (Mass, not OR).
Posted by
OP
34 posts
Im sold! Any suggestions for dinner, fun taverns?
Posted by
northern CA
2766 posts
There's a grill restaurant that I like a lot, not sure it it is still hip but at least last year it hadn't been too discovered by the out-of-towners:
http://www.asadorpalenciadelara.es
For a traditional Castellano dinner (quiet, tablecloths, stews and fowl) there is a spot popular with internal tourists but not so much with foreign tourists like us:
El Cobertizo. It's on the main drag, so it's tempting to leave it to the daytrippers, but I've found it to be reasonably authentic and the owners are nice.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-cobertizo-toledo
Wherever you go, don't order the cheapest set menu -- that gets you the cold shoulder, if you're lucky. Splurging a bit pays off!
[Note that cobertizo is the Spanish equivalent of the French traboule, so it's a word that shows up in a lot of names]