The Blessing and Curse of Happening Upon a Cultural Event

We had basically a day and a half in Cordoba as we started northward toward Oviedo. Details after the break.

Had a nice, easy train ride from Ronda to Cordoba. The LL enjoyed some salami and strawberries for lunch on the train and we basically hit the ground running once in Cordoba.

LL ate just about as much salami as I did for lunch

Again, a nice apartment location. Right in the heart of everything. With this across the street:

and this a block away:

Our first destination was the Cathedral of Cordoba, also called the old Mezquita (Mosque). The site has been an important place of worship for both the Moors and the Catholics over the years. We entered the courtyard area and discovered that there are free visits at 8:30 am every morning. So, we figured we would take advantage of the fact that we rise earlier than most in these tourist towns and take the free visit. We realized that it may be mobbed during the free visit period in the morning, but it probably couldn't be worse than it was this afternoon with all the tour groups going through anyway. Even on this first quick visit we grabbed a few quick pictures of some of the entry area. It's pretty impressive on the outside, and below you'll see it's also impressive on the inside.

Mezquita Exterior Wall

Cathedral Tower

Down the street is the Alcazar of the Catholic Kings. We went there to kill a couple of hours, and had a great time. The layers of architecture here are just so interesting. Clearly layers upon layers of development. Arab baths, castle, gardens, fortress. The LL just loved this place. Especially the gardens. And as you can see she kept us busy chasing her all over the place here. She even got to see some baby ducks in one of the fountains. What fun she had looking at the flowers, running around, and just generally exerting a ton of energy. I, on the other had, was not so excited about all the running around on a hot day.

Wall of the Alcazar

Alcazar Pools

Finding Plenty of Pretty Flowers

More Pools

Baby Ducks!

She's Off, Running All Over

My First Water Fountain!

View from the Tower

View of Cathedral from Tower

Next we headed to see some of the Cordoba patios. We are here during the waning days of the 2014 festival of patios, in which dozens of Andalusian patios are open to the public in Cordoba and are judged in a competition. Where I grew up, people got this crazy over high school sports, the demolition derby, and maybe the pie baking competition. This town is crazy over their patios. I think the LL and I were just about run over by no less than two dozen different old ladies scurrying about within and between patios in search of the best flowers. Just look at these lines:

I will say that there are some really pretty flowers. Not sure if it was worth all the fuss, but I'm glad we were here to experience it.

 

 

 

 

Our only really full day in Cordoba started with a return to the Mezquita for a free visit starting at 8:30. This turned out to be a brilliant choice. Despite this being a free time, the crowds were much less than when we visited the previous afternoon. There were still a ton of people in the building, but it's a really big building that can accommodate quite a crowd without feeling crowded.

And what a sight to see. The history here was that a basilica was on the sight until it was destroyed during a Muslim occupation. It was during that time that the mosque structure was built. And it was obviously a magnificent piece of architecture. When the Catholics reasserted control over the area, they built the cathedral that is there now, but they did an interesting thing. Rather than tearing down the mosque, they adapted it to their use, basically building a cathedral with all the usual trappings within the existing mosque. I'm not sure whether the point was to assert even more dominance over the conquered culture (my guess) or to make a sort of peace offering, or whether it was just a financial decision. But the final product is something to behold. The most interesting religious building I've ever been in:

After visiting the cathedral we grabbed some breakfast on the way back to the apartment. Breakfast in this part of Spain is definitely not what we're used to in the United States, and even finding a place open for some toast and coffee was not all that easy to do. But we got some food on the way home, relaxed a bit and then headed out for day two of looking at patios. This time it was much more enjoyable, as the crowds were not as large, perhaps due to the fact that we were in a different neighborhood but more likely due to the fact that the opening time at 11 am was probably still little early for those visiting the patio festival. The LL was in much better spirits and we called it a morning before she got too tired:

The LL Enjoying a Bird on One of the Patios

She Loves the Flowers

 After LL got a nap, we headed out for lunch. We learned about a place that serves classic regional food at decent prices and is not over-run by tourists. When we got there it was packed with mostly locals. As is often the case on our travels, it was not at all clear how to even join the line to get a table. But, we eventually figured out that it was not really that organized and you just got a table when you could, which we did, outside on their terrace. We got a cured meat plate (LL and I loved that), Jana got chorizo cooked in wine, and I got rabo de toro (braised bull tail). All was delicious. We also had a bottle of fino, which is typically a really nice white wine. Unfortunately, the one we got was awful, but I'm not one to let even a bad bottle of wine go to waste, and the meal was very good overall. On the way back to the apartment we stopped to play in some fountains and have some ice cream. Later in the day some kids were playing in the street next to the apartment and LL joined right in.

LL Enjoying the Fountains in a Square

This day in Cordoba was truly enjoyable. It was enjoyable because we felt more like we were just living there. We were not constantly in crowded tourist locations. You have to do that sometimes, and when a place is in the midst of a world-famous cultural event as Cordoba was while we were there you really cannot avoid it. Being in Cordoba during the patios was a blessing and a curse. Blessing because they really are beautiful and it is an experience worth having. Curse because the town was even more inundated with clueless tourists than usual. And much more crowded, which just is not my idea of fun. Our second day we more or less avoided the crowds. And we got to do some more normal, simple things like stopping for ice cream and finding local kids to play with.

We have now just arrived in Oviedo, which is far in the north of Spain. We will be living here for two months, so we are looking forward to more experiences like those we had the last day in Cordoba. More on our train trip from Cordoba to Oviedo and our transition from tourists to residents in the next posts.