quick trips for the mezquita

a forest of columns
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poor cordoba, only an hour from sevilla, got left until the last minute since it was so close and we assumed we could just go whenever.  the town itself is nice but nothing to really spend money to see if you are already somewhere like sevilla, but it has a really cool enclosed old jewish quarter, centered around the amazing mezquita cathedral/mosque, a huge building of ornate moorish architecture left from the moorish mosque now inhabited by a gaudy catholic cathedral.  the catholics left the arches and much of the carving in the sprawling one open floor, leaving a feel of being inside a forest of arches.  the places where they frescoed the arches themselves are amazing, a true synthesis creating something unequalled and totally unique.

just outside the old city walls
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we walked from the bus station all the way through the big central park in the center of town, down around the old gates of the city and followed the gigantic tower to our destination.  once inside, we just wandered around the sandstone forest for a couple hours before coming out, getting a crappy lunch, and walking back to the bus station, our last little jaunt over.