Toledo, Adolpho’s, On the Road to Cordoba

Early morning rain did not hamper the Tomba Tour. Chief Tomba and the Pooker went to Hertz to pick up the “touring car” – a 2009 Ford Station Wagon – YES. After filling out a “ton of paperwork” and getting directions on how to “find the car” in Spanish, we were off! A brief stop at McD’s to get Café con Leche and Egg McSausage, we equipped our Wagon with Hertz "Always Lost" and headed back to the hotel to get our “stuff”. Promptly loaded our “stuff” and got “lock and loaded” for the drive to Toledo, a medieval walled city, which was known as the New York of the middle ages. It is quaint, located up on top of a hill overlooking the Tagus river. It is a healthy walker’s paradise. Up, Down and All Over. We found parking and trekked up to the city center. We browsed about, in the rain :::: and then decided to head to Adolpho’s for lunch.

As you know, the Tomba Tour is a High Tech Tour, so Tomba took out his trusted iPhone with its high powered GPS and iPhone apps which contain every possible travel applet, and clicked on his Tripit listing for Adolpho’s. Up came a Google Map with a "pin" prominently showing precisely where Adolpho’s was located in Toledo on Avenida Granada. So Tomba and the Pooker started to walk the streets of Toledo – and got totally lost. 60 minutes passed as we walked, and walked and walked. Looking for street signs Finally, after Tomba repeatedly tried to get the Google Map to “show me the way” – Pooker said, let’s go to the information office and get a map and ask them where the restaurant is located – well, truth be told, we were seated in the restaurant in about 10 minutes – Thanks Pooker for “showing us the way”.

At Adolpho’s we were greeted by Javier Munoz, son of Adolpho Munoz, owner and chef. Adolpho’s was one of the restaurants that was visited by Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow on their “On the Road to Spain” trip. We were ushered to our table, which was impeccably set with white table linens, silver and “Adolpho” inscribed plate ware. Our waiter was Joel - a spitting image of Michael Caine - originally from from France, by the way of Los Angeles, Havana and now Toledo. He made a wonderful lunch spectacular. His introductions to the exquisite fare – local Champignons, Red Quail, Sweet Deer filet, assorted queso, all accompanied by Adolpho’s local wine – a tempranillo from their private vineyard. Javier was educated in the US at Ohio State and is now responsible for the restaurant when his dad is at the Vineyard. 3 1nd 1/2 hours later, we finished with an espresso and cappuccino for the "road ahead".... off to Cordoba!