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Every Sunday El Rastro is a frenetic, bustling entity. Stretching down from Metro Latina to the Grand Arch of the "Ronda de Toledo", the vast mass of browsing tourists, rickety stalls and hard bargaining locals sprawls so far in every direction that it seems a disservice to label it a street market. One can get quite literally anything here; from Moleskin Notebooks, replica football shirts, various "natural" cosmetics and questionably authentic antiques. The prices are on the right side of decent, but surprisingly it isn't the place to bargain. I picked up a military surplus jacket for 15 euro and though I attempted a fairly pathetic ploy of pretending I only had a tenner (if that stapel of British slang can be successfully applied to the euro), the stallholder would accept nothing less.

Pickpocketing a Pickpocket

James Taylor
2006-08-23 12:07:07

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Del Campo. I spent a rainy afternoon sitting on an empty, sheltered outdoor bar in the Campo Del Moro. I read George Orwell and watched the tame peackocks flounce about until some senile old women started shouting at me for no apparent reason.I ignored her, but I thought I might have been disregarding some sort of sacred Spanish custom on Bar-sitting until she wandered up the path and started hissing at at a couple who were strolling past. I spent a small fortune on English language books. "The Great Gatsby", "Love in the time of Cholera" and "Down and Out in Paris and London". I finished them all before I left. I really have to slow down on the Reading.

Originally I had planned to take several day trips out of Madrid, but only got around to going to Toledo. Realising I couldn't take the faster, more comfortable and free (with interail) train service, because it was booked, I opted for the bus instead. I fell asleep en route in the blazing midday heat and woke up with my contacts stinging and an irrepressible need to drink a litre and a half of water that i didn't have.

I loved Toledo for it's natural surroundings and it's medieval buildings but nothing else. It is very photogenic, but not exactly a very satisfying place to visit. The whole city is full to the brim with tourists (to be fair Spanish visitors as much as foreign) and subsequently the city caters to them with tourist prices and tourist shops. For some reason one out of every three shops seems trade in violent weaponry. I am guessing most of it is replica (I didn't investigate), but it still seems the demand for dangerous medival arms it unusually large in Toledo. I spent a couple of hours doing the usual; wandering the backstreets, drinking gallons of water in the plaza´s; but the Alacazar and Cathedral were closed and there were hour long queues for everything else. I would have liked to have seen the El Greco museum, but in that heat I was beyond caring. After ...