Today we are out on our own and the training wheels have been taken off. Melanie, Chris, Cohen and Quentin had given us a crash course in Spanish and etiquette and then cut the apron strings. Guys, we will try to do you proud…..maybe🤪
Casual start by catching a taxi at 9.00am into Sevilla central railway station for our 40-minute trip to Cordoba.
We passed via many orchards growing olives and oranges and the countryside was very green, but we were told that in the last month they had experienced a lot of rain.
Short walk to our hotel in Cordoba to drop off our bags and head out for our day of adventure. The train trip took 40 minutes. The hotel is perfectly situated with only a 15-minute walk to most of the places that we want to visit today.
We came across this Fiat 600 in original condition and even though it was only two doors, the doors opened backwards which use to be called suicide doors for obvious reasons.
Our first port of call was to the Ruta De Patio area where many of the small inner courtyards have displays of hanging pots.
It is just the beginning of the season, so a lot of the pots were not in full bloom, but it gave us a good idea of what it can look like. They use a lot of geraniums which aren’t really our choice of pot plant as we are more petunia kinda guys.
We found this fella just quietly observing his surroundings from a keen vantage point.
Next point of interest was the Puente Roman (Roman Bridge). It played an important role in the city’s battles against the armies of Peter I, the Cruel. He sounds like a most unsavoury kind of character. Apparently, it was constructed by the Romans in the 1st Century BC. What was the old Monty Python adage, “and what did the Romans ever do for us?”, well apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the freshwater system, and public health … the Romans didn’t do too bad.
It was then onto the Mezquita Cathedral. OK, so we have been around a few of these religious edifices before, but this one blew us away. The word GOBSMACKED came to mind. We won’t go much into the details of the place as it has got quite the history, but we will let our photos do a lot of the talking. There is also a video further down which is taken in the very center of the mosque which is mind blowing. It gets a bit shaky near the end as it made Di really dizzy trying to get it all in.
It was disappointing that the flowers at the bottom of the altar were fake as if they were real the aroma would have just topped it all off.
The Mezquita (Spanish for “mosque”) of Cordoba is a Roman Catholic cathedral. At first the site had been used for a temple, then a Christian cathedral. Under the rule of Islam, it was built as the second-largest mosque in the world.
This region of Spain and Portugal was heavily Muslim way back when and you can also see a lot of Moroccan influence in the architecture.
As you can imagine, the history gets very complicated as to who was where when and who was the dominate culture at any one time in this region, but we can say for sure that each culture has left an indelible mark on Cordoba. The original structure of the mosque was built 784-786 with many iterations after that, so between now and back then, a fair bit of water has gone under the bridge, so to say.
It was then up the bell tower for a birds-eye view of the surroundings.
This was looking down into the courtyard of the Mezquita.
It was getting about that time when you ring the gong for dinner.
By now it was getting about 4.30pm and our feet were aching so headed back to the hotel for a siesta before we head out again for the final food feast of the day.
We headed out at 7.30pm which is around the time that the Spanish normally eat. Fraser is more adventurous with his food, and he went for a Flamenquin which is cheese, pork and ham in a kind of crumbed batter. Di stuck with omelette and salad.
We have worn our feet away and are now walking on stumps. Those last few steps back to our hotel were murderous. Thankfully we have a few hours on a train tomorrow to Granada!!!
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