As I was leaving my hotel room for the evening, I heard a sweet and somewhat exotic music. It sounded Eastern European or East Mediterranean. Familiar in some way and reminiscent of an instrument from the theme of Dr Zhivago.

In the larger street by my hotel was a young woman playing the most peculiar device. Roughly trapezoid, with a number of bridges and strings mostly arranged in groups of three. She struck the strings with the hammers, sometimes trilling between two notes with her hammers. Or plucking individual strings pizzicato. Sometimes she place her hand just above the strings to dampen them without fully quietening them.

All the time she smiled serenely this way and that looking for all the world like a Russian saint come to life.

I was captivated by what she was doing, the music so fitted the time and place of Toledo – but I have a rule: if they make you stop, you have to pay!

I dropped my only change into her basket, she told me that it was a “dulcimer”. I had heard the name and heard the sound before, but I hadn’t seen one to know that the sound and the name went together.

She explained that it was kind of like a piano, which conceptually it was: strings, bridges, and padded hammers. Her own hands act like dampers. Of course, unlike a piano, she is striking the strings directly – she has to know what the notes are.

She asked if I’d like to have a go, I said yes and she handed me the hammers and told me how to hold them. Then she explained how a scale worked. It was bloody difficult because I couldn’t quite see the strings without my glasses, and without the map of black and white keys I was lost.

I handed the hammers back to her and she gave me that peaceful look and resumed playing. This time, rather than the more abstract tune, she played “Yesterday” by the Beatles!

I remained hypnotised by the sound … and the hypnosis worked: I emptied myself of my remaining Euros and bought two CDs!