EZ Honeymoon: Holy Toledo! Part 2 of 3

Tired and hungry, we managed to find one of Isabel’s recommendations, only for the gentleman at the bar to inform us there was no food until 13:30.  Thus, we discovered the trip’s major challenge, our stomachs, the local restaurants, and  the operating hours at tourist attractions were not in sync. Turns out, breakfast is generally 9 – 11:00, lunch is 13 to 16:00, and dinner service starts around 20:30.

Generally, most of the sites we wanted to see opened before breakfast and closed during the gap between lunch and dinner. We may have been able to adjust for those two variables alone, but we also tend to eat on the early side of a typical American dining schedule so our hunger pangs hit hardest at just the wrong times.

Determined to find something, anything to eat, we continued walking with hope of seeing someplace busy enough to imply food service.  We spotted a restaurant, Kumera, with open umbrellas at the tables outside, and once inside, the bartender informed us there was a small selection of the breakfast items still available. We ordered a tortilla sandwich (baked egg and potato casserole on fresh bread) with an order of thinly sliced Iberian ham, but the real highlight of our first Spanish meal were the cafés.

They were probably the best espressos we drank all week. EZ took hers with milk, I drank mine straight, and neither of us missed the weaker coffee we usually drink back home. Ordering coffee quickly became our best Spanish phrase, and was the interaction causing people to mistakenly think they could speak to us in “real” Spanish. You know, real conjugations and words spoken faster than Dan Dotson could auction a storage unit.

Delightfully satisfied with our late breakfast, we pressed on to explore the city.  The restaurant is just down the street from the Iglesia de San Ildelfonso, which is the Jesuit church we will feature pictures of in our next post.

After a bit of aimless wandering, we made our way back to the house to rinse off the airport grime and were surprised by a delightful gift package of marzipan from Santo Tomé, a confectioner operating since 1856. The climate of Toledo is conducive to almond trees,  making marzipan a favorite local treat, and I think we ultimately tried each variation Santo Tomé carried.

After taking time to relax a little and grab lunch at Los Cuatros Tiempos, we decided to check out either the train or double-decker bus tour, and by either, I mean whichever one we could find first because it generally took us until we were leaving to learn our way around a city.  We happened upon one of the tour stops right as the bus pulled up.  We quickly purchased tickets, the driver gave us headphones for the audio guide, and we made our way to the open air seating up top.

Trying to take pictures from the top of the bus as it wound through the tight cobblestone streets was quite a challenge, but also a rather fun game.  I don’t know that we had very much success, but the bus did make a few stops, providing some nice shots of Toledo.

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EZ Honeymoon Series:
First Things First
Holy Toledo! Part 1