Our next chapter began as we set out for Don Benito – a relatively small town in the Extremadura province of Spain (southwest of the country) where our friends Pilar and Diego live with their extremely cute little boys, Javier and Daniel.  Pilar (“Pili” for short) was a dear friend of one of our favorite aupairs (Ana)  years ago, and we have kept in touch with her.  Details of our time in Don Benito are to come…

We made our first pit stop in Zaragosa – a lovely city a couple of hours west of Barcelona.  We found a homey  “family” restaurant on the main plaza  – and nearly horrified the server by playing charades as we ate our lunch.  Not sure she’d ever seen such silly tourists, but what the heck.

Our destination for the day was the history-rich city of Toledo.  It was a pretty long drive from Zaragosa but it was worth it.  We were particularly interested in making this stop as we knew that the Jewish presence here in past centuries was rich and deep.  We wound our way up into the walled old city center and discovered that our hotel – the Carlos V – is located almost at the very top of the winding road that ends at literally the top of the city.  Very cool.  For future reference and prospective travelers, this hotel was really nice…clean, ultra modern by most standards (minimalist furnishings and lighting, etc), but still has the European flair to it.  The location could not be better as it sits in the very nexus of all the key sites in the old city.

Once settled in the hotel, Andrew, Ari and I spent part of the evening just wandering around the old city narrow streets, trying to get our bearings and scout out highlights for the following day.  There were lots of teenage girls out, dressed tto the nines and in very high heels…Spanish women are beautiful with legs that go on forever!  The best we could surmise was that there was some sort of holiday party happening in the main square, bringing out all these young fashionistas.   The boys didn’t mind at all 🙂

By the time we reconnected with Eitan and Ruth back at the hotel,  Ruth and I were a bit out of sorts and tired so we opted out of more gallivanting around and had gelato for dinner. The guys decided to troll the local bars for a while. To hear them tell it, Andrew took them out for beers and got Eitan singing drinking songs in one of the pubs…I (and you) should have been there.

Once we were all up the next morning we were treated to a typical Spanish hotel breakfast spread in a very morrocan/moorish setting.   This included thin sliced ham and cheeses, lots of crusty breads and rolls, flaky pastries, cereals, fresh fruit salad, Greek style yogurt, etc.  and of course cafe con leche!

Our primary goal in Toledo was to get to see the Sephardic Temple that is so famous, and learn a bit more about the presence of Jews and their contributions in Spain.  As we were on the hunt for the Temple and the museum housed there, we met up with a group of Jews from Sherman Oaks, California!  One of them was a young man who is a Rhodes scholar studying ethnomusicology and Flamenco in Seville (now THAT’S impressive…obscure, but impressive).  We had a nice chat with them and  found out that one gentleman’s father was a Cantor in “the valley” (San Fernando Valley where we have family)…small world.

The Sephardic Temple was like  stepping back in history…there was an incredible display of artifacts from the time the temple was in use by Jews: menorahs, the aron kodesh (ark for the Torah),  the women’s gallery (women were not allowed to sit with men so they had an upper level balcony to sit in for services), and much, much more.  It was very cool to see the rich remnants of our religion and cultural heritage and I think the kids were pretty awestruck as well.

Toledo is famous for marzipan (almond paste) that is made into a variety of shapes and is incredibly yummy.  There is actually a group of nuns in Toledo who have a marzipan factory!

Before leaving Toledo the boys HAD to buying swords and knives that are also made in this old city, and I treated myself to a small piece of black/gold jewelry (a bracelet) that is typical of this region.   The kids’ parting wish was to get food for the road from – of all places – McDonalds on the Plaza de Zocadover…hard to teach young dogs new tricks, I guess.