Walking Tour of Toledo Spain {Day Trip from Madrid} – Toledo is a MUST on your trip to Spain. Such a picturesque town. It is totally walkable and doable on your own. Just a short train ride from Madrid.
On our first full day in Madrid, we took a day trip to Toledo!
Toledo is a quick train ride from Madrid. You can buy tours from various tour companies around Madrid, OR you can just do it on your own like we did! The city is very walkable. We only took one cab the whole day.
Toledo is a beautiful little city and definitely worth the trip.
Toledo is known as the “Imperial City” for having been the main venue of the court of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and as the “City of the Three Cultures”, having been influenced by a historical co-existence of Christians, Muslims and Jews.
You are welcomed to the city by the The Alcázar of Toledo.
It is a stone fortification located in the highest part of Toledo, Spain.
It was once used as a Roman palace in the 3rd century, it was restored under Charles I and his son Philip II of Spain in the 1540s.
The Alcántara Bridge is a Roman stone arch bridge built over the Tagus River between 104 and 106 AD by an order of the Roman emperor Trajan in 98.
Entrance to the Alcántara Bridge and the city of Toledo.
I loved all the keyholes throughout the city!
The view from atop of the The Alcázar of Toledo.
Archway next to the Castilla-La Mancha.
My favorite place in Toledo was the Toledo Cathedral.
The cathedral of Toledo is one of the three 13th-century High Gothic cathedrals in Spain.
Construction began on the church in 1226.
This is The Portal of the Lions.
This section was built in the 15th and 16th centuries.
It is so named because of the lions that surmount the columns of the gate that encloses the small entranceway.
The Retable of the Cathedral is an extremely gothic altarpiece.
It was commissioned by Cardinal Cisneros, the work was begun in 1497 and finished in 1504.
It consists of five continuous panels.
The themes of the central panel from bottom to top are: the figure of a seated Virgin and Child plated in silver on the predella, above this the tabernacle and a Gothic monstrance carved in wood, then a depiction of the Nativity, and above that, the Ascension.
The whole culminates in a monumental scene of Christ’s crucifixion at Calvary. Further themes of the life and passion of Jesus are represented on the other panels.
The ceilings in the cathedral were magnificent.
There is a great view of the tower from the courtyard inside the cathedral.
We ended up spending a lot more time in here that we thought we would.
We had no idea how amazing it was on the inside!
Don’t miss the Toledo Cathedral!
Government building in Toledo
Look at all that Jamón!!!
I’m getting the meat sweats just looking at that tower of sandwiches! LOL!
You must go to Mirador del Valle on your day trip to Toledo.
It offers great views of the city!
We took a cab to and from Mirador del Valle.
It isn’t really walkable from the main city.
The Mosque of Cristo de la Luz is a former mosque in Toledo, Spain, the only one of the ten once existing in the city which remains largely as it was in the Moorish period.
Built in 999, this building is a rarity in that it is in much the same state as it was when it was originally built.
The building is a small square structure. It measures roughly 8m X 8m.
Four columns capped with Visigothic capitals divide the interior into nine compartments.
It only cost a couple of euros to go inside the Mosque.
It was really beautiful inside and really neat to see something so old and untouched.
Overall, we LOVED the picturesque town of Toledo.
It was an easy train ride from Madrid.
You can walk right into town from the train station.
We only took one cab on our trip – up to Mirador del Valle to get pictures of the city.
My favorite thing in Toledo was obviously the Toledo Cathedral.
That amazing altarpiece was worth the trip alone!!
Don’t miss our other Spain posts:
Top 10 Places to see in Barcelona:
Where to Eat in Barcelona:
Day Trip to Segovia Spain:
Top 10 Things to See in Madrid:
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So excited to go to Toledo this month. Your pictures are so beautiful. What type of camera do you use? Should we book a train in advance or can we just do it the day we want to go to Toledo?
We didn't book the train in advance. We just bought tickets the day we went. There are several trains, just check the schedule so you know the times.
I use a Sony RX100 camera. Here is the link on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EGjbdZ