At breakfast with a couple we had not 'met', Annette & Alan from Hackney, we found more vociferous reds. For our last full day trip in Spain, the coach took us to Toledo, the original Visigoth capital of Spain. (We had passed a wind turbine shop on the last 3 trips). This took an hour & we stopped at a splendid viewpoint overlooking the city, then parked at one end.

Fortunately, as it is on a big bluff, there were escalators to take us up. However, we soon found that the whole place is very up & down. We visited the gloomy vast cathedral, where we were charged an extortionate E7 each & more catholics on the tour were outed.

The Toledo Alcazar

Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

The Visigoth Museum

Then, we went up away from the crowds to the Visigoth Museum. This was free but quite small, having mostly jewellery (fibulas, hairpins & belt buckles) & stone work from buildings dismantled in the Middle Ages. Then, on to the synagogue that had been converted into a church. This had been built for the jews by the moors & looked it but the 'altar' end did not really fit together. After that, we had lunch in a nice square with trees but, walking to the other synagogue, it started to rain. We went into the St Tomas, which has a huge El Greco, after which the rain got very bad. We stopped in an open air cafe but its umbrellas leaked water quite badly. We chatted to a Danish couple we had seen in the Queen Sofie two days ago. I had a coffee & Avis, an ice cream but we were getting wet. The rain moved on to torrential & we hung about until it moderated somewhat, then set off for the Santa Cruz Museum, the rain gradually stopping but the streets were running with water & Avis had open-toed sandals.

Synagogue Santa Maria la Blanca

Synagogue de El Transito

Tapestry in the Museo de Santa Cruz

Fortunately, we had folding umbrellas but they were not of top quality. Mine has a tendency to collapse. The museum was free & had an interesting collection of wall tapestries, some paintings, mostly mediocre but including two El Grecos, some Goth artefacts & building parts & a lot of ceramics. This took us to going back time: 1630.

Museo de Santa Cruz

King Recceswinth's crown

El Grecos

I snoozed for most of the journey. We were blocked by two Trafalgar Tours coaches, which boded ill but dinner went off smoothly, although the rations department in the Novotel do have trouble keeping up with demand. I had swordfish & there were no chips left, so I had paella instead, which suited me fine although Avis passed because of the mussels & squid in it. There were a lot of gateaux for pud, all of which had to be tried.