A Short Visit to Cordoba

We left Madrid on an 8:30 AM train headed south to Cordoba.  Our plan was to do some sightseeing for a couple of hours there and then take the 5:30 PM train to Seville.  The only issue would be our luggage.  Although each one of us was only toting a carry-on luggage and a backpack, this would still be too much to lug around for sightseeing.  Fortunately, other travelers had previously had the same idea, so The Wife had found mention of a business near the train station that stored people's luggage for the day.  We arrived at the Cordoba train station after a two hour journey.  We grabbed our gear and brought it to the luggage-storage store.  It was closed.  For the week.  We were pissed.

After a couple of minutes of cursing and brainstorming, The Wife came up with an idea.  We already knew that there were no storage lockers at the train station.  However, there was also a bus station a block away.  It was really our only chance.  We backtracked back to the train station and then to the bus station.  To our great joy and relief, there are indeed luggage storage lockers at the bus station.  We unloaded all of our gear into those lockers and flagged some taxis down to take us to the heart of the old city.

In ancient times, Cordoba had been a flourishing city within the Romans, Byzantines, and then Visogoths Empires.  In 711 AD, the city was captured by Umayyad invaders where it flourished under its new Muslim rulers.  Eventually it became the capital of the Umayyad emirate and subsequent caliphate of al-Andalus.  By the 10th and 11th centuries, Cordoba had peaked in size to around a million inhabits and became one of the leading cities in the world.  It was a leading center for cultural, scientific, and economic advancement.

However, the city began to decline due to internal political struggles and ineffective leadership.  Invasion by the Berbers and the subsequent Reconquista and capture by the Christian kings hastened the city's demise.  By the 1700's, only a few tens of thousands of people called Cordoba their home.

Despite it's decline, Cordoba has a wealth of sites that are attractive to tourists.  Our first stop was the Alcazar of Cordoba, also known as the Castle of the Christian Monarchs.  It was constructed about a century after the recapture of the city over the site of a previous Al-Andalusian fortress.  It was later inhabited by Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II as they finished the expulsion of the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula.  In a 300 year span, the Spanish Inquisition also used the Alcazar of Cordoba extensively for its headquarters and for tribunals.

Half of the attraction for the Alcazar of Cordoba is its exquisite garden.  We were visiting in Spain's winter time.  Even then, the gardens were still beautiful and well-manicured.  I could only imagine how beautiful it would look in the summer when all the flowers have bloomed.  Then again, Cordoba generally has the highest temperatures in Europe, so I can also imagine how hot and miserable I would be.

There were olive, lemon, and orange trees teeming with fruit.  Part of the groundskeepers' jobs is to dispose of the man fruits that fall from the tree.  The Mother-In-Law picked up a fallen orange to see how they tasted.  A nearby groundskeeper waived her off, explaining that that variety was not very good.  Instead, he proceeded to use his fruit picker to get one off of a high branch.  He explained that that orange would be much tastier.  He wasn't wrong.  It was so sweet and delicious.  You have to appreciate the kind people who go out of their way to make others smile.  Let's be clear.  I'm not one of them.

In the center of the garden is a row of fountains that lead to 3 statues.  This scene depicts the meeting between Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand culminated in the discovery of the New World.

Our next stop, the Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) was not too far.  So we walked along the riverside road towards it.  Along the way, we passed the Molino de la Albolafia which is the remains of an ancient waterwheel that dates back to Roman times.  It was initially constructed to power a flour mill.  However, it had also been used to help irrigate the gardens of the Alcazar of Cordoba before Queen Isabella shut it down because it made too much noise.  Sadly, in present times, it is overrun with trash and cats.  So now, it merely serves as a feline Ferris wheel.

We continued on to the Puente Romano.  Although the Romans built the initial bridge that spanned the river, the current structure was rebuilt by the medieval Muslim rulers.

The bridge is a total of 810 feet long and ends at the Calahorra Tower which defends this entrance to the city.  We walked for only about 100 feet before turning back and reentering the city through the Puerte del Puente, built in 1572.

Directly behind this gateway was our next stop, the Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba.  The initial building at this site was a Visigoth church.  After the Islamic conquest Spain, the small building was used by both Christians and Muslims for worship.  In 784 AD, the Muslim ruler ordered the building destroyed for the construction of the Great Mosque of Cordoba on this same spot.  After control of Cordoba fell back into Christian hands, the building was converted back to a cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

With its complex history, the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba has a much different, more refreshing appearance than the Gothic cathedrals around Madrid.  The remnants of the Islamic architecture is readily apparent.

Artifacts dating to the buildings use as a Visigoth church, mosque, and cathedral are on display.

 But like any typical Catholic cathedral, there are plenty of ornate altars, carved ceilings, and stain glass windows.

After we finished our tour of the Mosque-Cathedral, we wandered around the streets of the old Jewish Quarter visiting shops.  The Wife was enthralled by the designs of a local jeweler at a store called Plateria Califal.

Since we were trying to cram several tourist attractions into only a couple of hours, we weren't sure that we would even have enough time to eat lunch.  Fortunately, we were moving at a good pace, so we had time to try some of the local specialties.  There is salmorejo, a cold tomato soup that is thicker than gazpacho with the addition of bread.  It's usually served with pieces of hard-boiled eggs and ham.  Flamenquin is also a popular dish.  It consists of rolled up pork loin and ham that is breaded and deep fried.  With the popularity of bull-fighting in this part of Spain, rabo de toro (bull's tail stew) has evolved into a popular meat dish in Cordoba.  Finally, the favorite local dessert is
pastel cordobés, a sweet puff pastry filled with candied fruit pulp and sometimes ham.
We went to one of the older, classic restaurants in the Jewish Quarter called Restaurante El Churrasco.  Although there was hardly a soul inside the dining area, they couldn't accommodate all six of us without a reservation.  We ended up trying another eatery just down the street called Restaurante El Rincon de Carmen.  We were pleasantly surprised how good the food was.

Salmorejo

Patatas bravis bravisimas

Fried eggplant slices with sugarcane syrup

Fried calamari

Flamenquín cordobes

Rabo de Toro

Cafe con leche

Pastel cordobés

We enjoyed all of the Cordoba culinary specialties except the flamenquin.  It wasn't bad, just too heavy and also fairly ordinary.  After lunch we did more walking and shopping as we made our way back towards the bus and train stations.  With such a beautiful afternoon, we relaxed at a park for an hour before it was time to get our luggage and take the train onward to Seville.

Santa Claus in front of the Church of St. Nicholas.

The Boy realizes that he is too big to use the playground.

We arrived in Seville in the middle of the night.  However, we had no problems hailing two taxis to take us to our lodgings.  It was a spacious three bedroom apartment with multiple common areas including a little courtyard to let a little sunlight in.

The apartment's owners even left us a nice gift basket with some wine, cheese, sardines, and local artisan bread.  With a few more items from a nearby supermarket, we had enough food for a nice relaxing dinner in our new digs.