Cordoba Day 2

Sunday we had  a full day planned, we had the Alcazhar first on the agenda and then planned to have lunch at the Botanical Gardens before heading to the Mezquite at 2pm when it opened again for the afternoon.

We arrived not too long after 10 at the Alcazhar I think, bought our tickets (only 4 euro for the adults and free for Hilary) and headed inside. At that point we discovered that the gardens were actually part of the site and therefore we could stay as long as we liked really, moving from the gardens to the buildings and back depending on our mood. We went to the gardens part first, again gorgeous water features, and wonderful use of ponds and trickling water to soothe the spirit especially in the heat, though the sun wasn’t over-powering this day (or maybe I’m getting acclimatised.) We spent quite a while in the gardens before heading to the plaza in the middle, looking at tiling and ancient pots/statues and building features.

Then we climbed up onto the towers for stunning views over the complex, and a bird’s eye view of the dozens of people who were now outside queuing to get in (made us grateful we had arrived when we did). After a good look around we went and sat in the shade and ate our pre -prepared filled rolls in the gardens surrounded by pommegranate trees and other delights.

From the Alcazhar we headed around the corner to buy tickets for the Mezquite. On our way we came across a Spanish confrontation. Of course we don’t understand what is being said/shouted in these cases which is a bit of a drag, but boy were they cross. One of the blokes who has horses and a carriage to take tourists around the town, was standing up in his carriage surrounded by a group of shouting Spaniard taxi drivers we think. There were a couple of taxis held up behind the maul as the streets were very narrow and crowded, it being Sunday afternoon and with live entertainment to be had (the brawl). I’m not sure what had happened but this guy with the horses was very cross, and he had the advantage of height and a whip!!!!!!! In the end he started whacking people with it, while one of the guys on the road started pulling at the horses head and bridle, I suspect trying to get the horse moving on and getting the wild man out of the confrontation. Finally the horse and driver went on, but the brawl seemed to continue or certainly the shouting, we left the scene while we could, it had only taken a few seconds but boy, talk about exciting.

Iit was very confusing about where to get the tickets and where to enter the building so it was about 40 minutes before we finally managed to get inside. This building is described as one of the great Moorish buildings of Spain and possibly the world, others in places such as morocco have been based on this one, and it sure was impressive, even for people who had seen so many incredible buildings and sights over the past few months. The whole place is a rectangle surrounded by large walls, one end about a quarter of the area I guess is an open courtyard with lemon trees and pomegranites and multiple fountains and channels of water for both irrigation and washing. In this area people used to wash before going into the mosque for prayers. The other three quarters of the area is covered, on the plan it is divided into four areas, each built on by a successive ……  It’s history mirrors that of this part of Spain with the various successive rulers leaving their mark, the Moors and then the Christians each trying to eliminate the former influence to a degree. The mosque has a cathedral built inside it, not the walls and things, more just an altar and pews, and huge high ceilings and dome. It is very ornate  and quite wonderful, as are the pillars and arches of the outer aspect which the moors built. I’ll show you with photos as trying to describe it won’t be adequate, but the photos just give a mild taste of how the whole picture was.

The tower as viewed from the orange grove

An idea of what the arches looked like

One of the chapels

Some of the gold and glitter and wonderful plaster work

One of the stained glass windows

We left the Mezquite and had a wander around bits of the Jewish quarter again, stopped for beer/coffee/ice-cream in the heat of the afternoon before continuing our walk.

We had a wee while to fill while we waited for our show of the Andalucian horses to begin at 8 so we sat at a bar/café outside the Royal Stables and had beer/wine/coke and tapas to pass the time.

The highlight was absolutely delicious, fat green olives, not too salty, but salty enough to accompany a cold beer on a hot sunny Spanish afternoon. We also had some sardines in breadcrumbs (not too much bigger than a whitebait) the nice ones were delicious but some of them were as bitter as, and couldn’t be consumed. We also had a Spanish omelette, frittata type thing with egg and potato- again very pleasant, and a lamb stew thing which Hilary consumed happily. For afters we had custard type/ crème catalina type thing which is a bit like crème brulee but with a more solid texture and a small cakey base. Very pleasant.

Just before 8 we headed over to watch the horse show. It was quite good, dressage pretty much, and showing the control these blokes have over the horses, Hilary didn’t like it at all, she was very angry when one of the men appeared to hit the horse to make it jump in mid-air, and was angry that the horses were being made to do things that she didn’t feel were natural for them. A very interesting perspective and one I hadn’t anticipated from her at all.

So we left there at about 9 I guess, or possibly even later, and walked to our bus stop to get the bus back to Avendida Brilliante and our camp site. We thought we would be clever and catch the bus one stop further than we had the other night, thinking it would take us one closer to the campsite or, worst case scenario back to the stop we had got on at earlier in the day as we thought we had seen it turn just up the road and do a circuit back into town from there. Ha ha, about 40 minutes later after a tour of the seedier part of Cordoba we were back to the Repsol petrol station we should have got off at earlier. We still haven’t worked out what route it takes, we think possible a figure of eight, or possibly and (probably more likely) a “make it up as you drive along” type route. Suffice to say, we were very tired little girls when we got back at 11 or so to our campsite, so we made quick bed preparation motions and settled down as soon as we could.