Photo matching in Toledo, Spain

For those of you new here, my father had done two extended trips to Europe in the 1950's, one in 1954, and one in 1957. He took a lot of photos in slide format, and Ruth has digitized them and we have them on our laptops. So when we are in the same place as he was, we try to match up some of those photos by standing in the exact same spot that he might have stood almost 70 years ago.

We were pretty successful in this exercise here in Toledo, Spain yesterday!

We only had five photos to work with. You obviously didn't take as many photos back then as we do today!

We set off walking up to the old town. The first photo was a view of the Tagus River looking north from the city. It was taken from higher up, and we had a pretty good idea of where from.

October 1954.

April 2023.

I took a few other photos from the same viewpoint...

Next up was a building in the central plaza of old town Toledo. We had seen this building the day before when we were wandering around, and Ruth was pretty sure she knew where it was. In my dad's photo, there was some kind of parade...

My dad has this photo labeled "Franco Youth".

But there were no Franco Youth on parade yesterday!

Ferdinand Franco was the general turned dictator who ran Spain from the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975. Did you know that Spain had been a dictatorship during that period? We didn't. It was only upon his death that Spain became a democracy.

This is the same building.

We walked by the Alcazar.

The Alcazar is not an "old" building. The original was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War in 1939, and the building was totally rebuilt between 1955 and 1961. Notice the dates, because my dad was there in 1954. See the photo further below.

The road on the left meanders to a couple of viewpoints looking back at the city. 

We would end up walking this route back.

Lots of interesting things to see.

Castillo de San Servando, built between 1024 and 1088.

Now a hotel!

Looking up at the Alcazar.

Ruth, enjoying the view.

Weir and mill below the castle.

Lots of big old walls.

Iglesia Mozarabe de San Lucas Catholic Church.

We found this old tree stump with these little carvings in it.

We finally made it to our next photo match, the San Martin Bridge. 

The San Martin Bridge was built in the late 1300's. At the time, it would have been one of the longest bridges in the world of that design.

It was pretty easy to find the viewpoint where my father might have stood to take the photo... but now there is a zip line operation running in almost that same spot. Still, we did a pretty good job of matching it up...

San Martin Bridge 1954.

San Martin Bridge 2023.

Oh... there goes a zipline participant!

We walked across the bridge and then did the 5 kms (3 miles) on the scenic viewpoint road. There are a lot of tour buses and even a local little wheeled train that does this route. No idea, but we get the impression dad did a few of these bus tour things that may have been operating at the time.

Notice the painted alcove over the bridge gate.

Zoomed in.

Scenery along the way.

Looking back at the other side.

Views of the Toledo old town skyline.

There are some expensive homes and hotels on this side because of the view.

Expensive properties.

There are several miradors along this road that give fantastic views of the city.

Eventually, we came to the one that matched up to Dad's photo...

The Alcazar in 1954.

The Alcazar in 2023.

It's really difficult to exactly match things up because of the different focal length of the lenses. And his photo wasn't the best quality or lighting. But still, we're pretty happy with the results! 

Just one more...

1954.

2023.

Looking back the other way.

We did a lot of walking yesterday. I wasn't keeping track, but somewhere over 12 kms (7.5 miles) for sure. But we had fun, and it was perfect weather for it. High of about 22C (72F).

We've enjoyed Toledo, and in fact it's a small city that we could live in. Lots to see and do, and just the right size. And close enough to Madrid to have access to an international airport. Lots of history, and very little of the graffiti which seems to be a big problem in many European cities.

Speaking of Madrid, our original plan was to get close to the city and take a train or bus in to do some exploring. But we're feeling a little tired of cities so we're going to detour around Madrid. We'll make it there another time.

Heading into the countryside today towards the small city of Avila.

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