Spain La Mancha – Tilting at Windmills – Middle-aged flash packers

Day 4 – Toledo

Yesterday evening we were very much looking forward to a tasty meal at The Coto de San Juan. Home cooked food at a fair price, 10 minutes walk down the road. Excellent. I checked their website which stated they were definitely open. Except they were not. Oh dear. The curse of Monday closing. Now we were stumped as most other restaurants were closed apart from a couple of dives that I wouldn’t even want a drink in. So, was it to be cold, end of the day offerings from Mercadona, or brave the hotel restaurant?

I plumped for the hotel and it wasn’t a good decision.

We are staying at the NH Cuidad hotel which is great. Modern, comfortable, loads of free and safe street parking, quiet and within walking distance of the old town. (If you like walking)

But the restaurant…

To be fair it was very busy as lots of tourists like us obviously couldn’t find anywhere to eat. Our waitress initially looked as though this state of affairs resulted in her swallowing a wasp but she did woman up and brought us an English version of the menu. The selection was somewhat limited so S chose the burger and I chose the chicken fingers with three different sauces.

Imagining maybe a salsa, some garlic and lemon mayo and the other a pleasant surprise, I was not delighted to receive in three arty small bowls, tomato sauce, mustard mayonnaise and plain mayonnaise that had been squeezed out of a small tube, the like of which you’d find in a Morrisons cafe. I know this because S got these very same sachets with his burger. Now who looks like they’ve swallowed a wasp?

Long story short, stay in the hotel but get your food from the Mercadona.

This morning after topping up with lunch supplies from Mercadona (what would we do without you?)we were on our way to Toledo via the Jardin de Principe in Aranjuez and yes, you guessed it, Toledo’s Mercadona.

Considering we were a stone’s throwaway from Madrid, the traffic was very quiet. Aranjuez is where the Royal Palace of Aranjuez resides, along with its associated gardens of which the Prince’s garden is one.

Parking is plentiful outside the gardens and although the website says there is a charge, we didn’t pay anything. It was a lovely place to stretch our legs and scoff down some lunch even though you’re not supposed to bring food or drink into the park.

Next a quiet drive to Toledo Mercadona where we bought something for dinner in case no restaurants were open (we’ve been traumatised) then turned up at our apartment.

At first we didn’t think our rather large hire car would manage the small avenue the apartment was situated in, but it did and S managed to squeeze it in to the designated garage parking space with ease.

As an aside, we always just want a medium sized car, something our cases will fit in the boot without being on show, but can still be manoeuvred around tiny little streets but I guess this is what everyone wants, so inevitably we get “upgraded” to a tank that is a total nightmare to park.

Anyway, the apartment is in great condition and very central. The only thing I’m not wild about is the closeness of our terrace and bedroom to the neighbour’s but I’m sure we’ll cope as long as we are mindful we are on show and don’t wander about starkers as S is wont to do.

We are staying in the Jewish quarter, a labyrinth of winding streets and tiny, ancient houses. Further up the steep hill there are plazas surrounded by tourist shops full of Toledo steel swords and figures of knights.

Toledo is more of a tourist draw than I thought and Steve’s restaurant search revealed that many close at 6pm as lunchtime is their core business. Yikes, Mercadona may save us yet again!

Luckily S managed to find a bistro that was open so we made our way through the very quiet alleyways to Fabula.

We were very lucky to get in there as it is small but cozy. The food was delicious as was the wine. Our best meal so far, very reasonably priced and absolutely no sachets of tomato sauce in sight. Needless to say, we have booked to go again.