Holy Toledo!

We were supposed to leave Toledo on Sunday morning to begin our trip to Valencia. However, around 11 p.m. on Saturday, Henry woke up vomiting. "No big deal, " I thought - his stomach viruses never last more than a few hours. However, at around 1:00 a.m., Bill joined in. By his description of the pain, we figured out that they had food poisoning. The night-long battle for the bathroom was on, and the trip to Valencia was postponed. As the day wore on, Caroline and I both became ill as well.

At around 8:00, I made my way down to Aurora's apartment to ask if we could stay another night. I managed to communicate that my family was 'muy inferma' and could not travel. She seemed to understand, as she gave me some chamomile tea and some kind of liquid medicine (which we didn't take) to settle our stomachs. I think that was the last accurate verbal communication she and I shared.

Sometime around midday, we thought maybe we were well enough to travel (I still had not gotten sick), so I was tasked with talking to Aurora to see if she could help us call for a taxi to take us to the train station. I brought the train schedule with me, along with what I thought was the contact information for the taxi company. This time, though, I wasn't very effective in communicating with her. Not only did she not help me make the phone call, but she sent me back to our apartment with a pot of white fish and potato soup that she made for us (I'm pretty sure that the smell alone is what made me sick)!!! Within the hour, Caroline and I began vomiting (big surprise), so we decided to wait until Monday to try to leave.

Around 5:00, there was a knock at our door. It was Aurora. She was presenting me with a Tortilla España (spanish omelette), made with egg and potato. I think she was concerned about us because the markets were closed, as it was Sunday, and the only thing she knew to do was cook. It was very sweet of her, but I felt terrible knowing that there was NO WAY we could eat the food. Call me crazy, but fish and eggs are not exactly what come to mind as nausea reducing foods! I thanked her, though, and told her that we were all 'muy cansado' and tried to gesture that we were all going to sleep. I think she told me to knock on her door in the morning when we were ready to leave, so we said 'buenos noche' and went to bed.

By morning, we were still not feeling great, but we were well enough to travel so we headed out early and began the trip to Valencia. We really loved seeing Toledo and learn of its amazing history, but we were ready to move on. We didn't have a WiFi connection in our apartment, and we really underestimated the impact that being disconnected would have on us.