We are so happy with our three choices of towns to visit in this after-Camino segment of our trip. Each intriguing. Each different from the other two.
| Ronda is knock-your-socks-off beautiful, clinging as it does to the gorge of the Tajos River. The sidewalk cafes, bull ring, city parks, Spanish guitar concert, and meandering through the old parts of town each day, set off our relaxation time at our resort-like hotel. |  The view from the museum where we attended the Spanish guitar concert, with 8 other lucky folks. |
 A car passed us on this street as we walked toward the Roman bath site. | Cordoba’s narrow, whitewashed streets leading to the amazing Mezquita, where we spent parts of two mornings, the synagogue and other sites to visit, were visit-worthy. But we were also in a town where people live and work, less of a tourist site, despite the Mezquita and all else we enjoyed seeing. That made eating different too. Small restaurants full of locals called to us. |
Now we are in Toledo. A hilltop village with Roman, Muslim, and Christian history and cultures. There are more sites that interest us than energy to climb to all of them. The tours are everywhere from about 10:00 to 6:00. But the place is so vibrant and beautiful that the industrial-strength tourism does not ruin it for us post-Camino visitors. We take to the quiet corners in midday and explore before the buses of day-tourists arrive from Madrid and after they leave. It is as beautiful as Rhonda, with the hilltop buildings here impressing the way the nature-carved gorge did there.
 Yikes! The town is a long walk up! |  Made it! |
 |  Our hotel is near the cathedral. Always easy to find our way back. |
 Our hallway, with glass walls to see down to the reception area three floors below. |  No idea what these 10’ tall dolls are in a corridor at the cathedral, but couldn’t resist them |
 Visiting the cathedral |  El Greco in the cathedral |
 The cathedral next door to our hotel |  Visited another church to see another El Greco |
Today is 56th anniversary. Toledo is a great place to spend it. An unexpectedly amusing highlight was to ride the touristic train, with a pushy old woman butting herself and three friends in line ahead of us and a loud wannabe-tour guide mother behind us repeating everything the guide said to be sure her eye-rolling teens didn’t miss a word! The views and the comedy of it all made for a great way to spend part of our day
 We never would have seen this view without riding the touristic train □ |  Pushy woman. She got in first LOL |  A train ride for our anniversary! |
 | Tomorrow we head to Madrid and step back into the travel zone, where fate and luck will be in charge. The town visits were spectacular. The Camino still rules our adventure-hearts. |
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