Day 8 – Explore Toledo
We left Granada early in the morning to hit the road, spending about 4 hours driving north towards Madrid. At around lunchtime, we ended up at Toledo, a city less than an hour outside of Madrid, filled with lots of Jewish history and sights, despite no real Jewish presence today.
There’s a Jewish Quarter of Toledo which you can spend half a day or more exploring, depending on how in-depth you want to go. We explored the “Sinagoga Santa Maria la Blanca” which is no longer a synagogue, and no longer a church, but more of a museum of the history of both. (Do not go in here if you want to avoid crosses). We visited the Museo Sefardi which included lots of Jewish artifacts, Torahs, menorahs, and other religious items used by the Jews of Spain over the last 1000+ years.
You can book a Jewish heritage tour of Toledo via Viator.
We left Toledo around sunset to make it back to Madrid for dinner at one of the city’s kosher restaurants, trying the dairy restaurant, Rimmon Restaurant which specializes in kosher pizza and pasta. It was busy and we enjoyed the food.
Day 9 – Last Full Day in Madrid
We spent our last day in Spain exploring more parts of Madrid we didn’t get to experience on our first day in town. We went back to Barganzo for brunch, which was fantastic, probably our favorite kosher restaurant in Madrid.
We took a nice walk through El Retiro, the city’s massive park which has gardens, boating, and more. Later in the day we did some shopping in the city’s central business district and headed to Madrid’s fanciest of their kosher restaurants: La Escudilla, an upscale steakhouse-style restaurant, albeit with limited hours.
The one thing we didn’t get to explore in Madrid was the city’s internationally renowned art museums, specifically the Museo Nacional del Prado which can be an all-day visit for art lovers. Definitely a reason for us to go back and explore Madrid more.
Use Viator to book entry tickets for Madrid’s museums.
The next morning we headed back to the airport and flew back to NYC. It was a whirlwind experience and one we recommend for adventurers of all types.
Some tips:
- It can be pretty cold in parts of Spain throughout the winter. Make sure to bring your winter coat and gloves.
- Driving between cities was fairly easy in Spain, but keeping a car within nearly any of the cities mentioned in this article is difficult as these cities were planned many hundreds of years ago. Use public transit and Ubers within cities if possible.
- There are so many places to see and do beyond what we were able to shove in during our 9-day excursion. Use Viator as a way to explore your options and book tours.
