Cold Cordoba

Whoever told me that it would be warm in Spain at this time of the year was wrong. It's not. I'm very glad to have all my warm clothes with me because it hasn't been over 14 degrees since I got down south. It is down to 3 or 4 overnight and here in Cordoba it has been grey and cloudy since I arrived. So much for the sunshine.

That said, Cordoba is a really lovely little town. It took 3 hours to get here on the direct bus from Granada (which strangely enough stopped three times). It was quite a pretty trip through the hills covered in olive groves. They go as far as your eye can see really. It is pretty down here and reminds me of home much more than anywhere else in Europe. It is all brown and muted greens, not the bright almost artificial looking colour of Northern Europe.

It isn't that far to walk into town from the bus station but it is very easy to get lost on the way. I was doing well until I got to the last turn and went the wrong way. It then took another 10 minutes to get where I wanted. The problem is because it is flat you can't see many landmarks and the streets aren't well marked (more of these decorative street signs). Some also seem to have two names which is a little odd. It didn't help that the basic map that I have only shows some of the street names and never the ones that I wanted. Cordoba also has lots of these 'plazas' that aren't marked on maps and make it harder to work out where you are.

I headed up to my room which is on the first floor and is a little noisy because of the kitchen and restaurant underneath. It is otherwise okay though and the bathroom is quite good. Luckily the restaurant closes at 11.30pm rather than the usual Spanish 1.30am. I headed out into the town again to have a wander around in the area east of the mezquita. The old town is fairly small and you could do most of the sights in a day if you didn't get lost too often.

It is totally insane that they let people drive their cars in the small windy streets in the old town. You often find yourself having to stand in doorways to let people drive through because there are no footpaths since the streets aren't wide enough. They are mostly one way and there is no parking anywhere so I don't know why people even bother driving into the old town in the first place. Venice manages to cope without cars so why can't here.

I headed to the archeological museum which had closed early because of the long weekend. I then headed into the streets and looked for an old Roman Gate that was meant to be in there somewhere. I think that I found it much later but then again it may have just been some other gate. I walked through a cute little plaza with lots of outdoor cafes as well. It would be very pleasant in the summer. I walked past a very unloved looking church of St Francisco. It is a shame because what is left of the doorways are really lovely. There are quite a few buildings here that look in need of a little care.

I walked up to Plaza de la Corredera which is lined with apartments and has street cafes in the middle. It must be a prime address. It would also be lovely on a sunny winter's day. I then looped back down one of the main streets that is lines with orange trees and even has footpaths. Heaps of the little buildings in the area had their gates open so that you could look inside the little islamic courtyards. They are lined in blue and white tiles and just lovely. All nice and green and would be nice and warm.

I wandered past the deserted Convent of St Clara. It was left by the nuns in the 19th century and has been unused since. There are lots of cats living in the courtyard and someone comes and feeds them and gives them water. They seem to have started some renovations recently on the main facade so hopefully, they will repair the whole building. I continued down the street and eventually after a couple of turns ended up on the bottom corner of the Mezquita. I walked down to the waterfront to see what the river looked like but it is totally not worth it. The river is really unattractive with dirty brown shallow water and a horrible smell. The old roman bridge is being renovated so you can't walk over it or even get near to it and the tower on the other side is also covered in scaffolding.

On this side of the river is a fancy arch that used to be part of the town walls. It was remodelled after the wall was removed and made into a memorial arch instead. You can climb up onto the top of it when it is open. Next to it is a large column with a statue of the Archangel Rafael who is the patron of the city (thank God someone is giving poor St George a break!). It has lots of other statues around the base that are allegories for something (why can't they just make the meaning clear?). It is known as the Triumfos and is a memorial for Rafael saving them all from some plague or another.

The large building next to the Mosque is the old Bishop's palace and is now some form of official building. You can go into the courtyard and look around and there are a couple of rooms open to the public as well. It has a series of little signs about some of the local landmarks in the first room in Spanish and English.

I was pleased to find when I got back to the hotel that I have BBC World so I could watch TopGear (even if it is the cut version). I had a kebab for dinner as I couldn't be bothered trying to get a table at the few open restaurants or waiting until 9.30 for the rest to open again. It is a big issue in Spain at this time of the year because there is very little to do after it gets dark and nothing is open for dinner until at least 8pm.

Sunday morning, it was grey and cold again but I headed out anyway. I started with the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianus (the Royal Palace). It wasn't open when I got there so I went for a bit of a walk around the area. I came upon a door in the old walls, the Sevilla Gate. It isn't anything particularly fancy. It must have been just a usual everyday kind of door. There are the remains of an aquaduct that used to supply the palace next to the gate. For years they thought that it was part of a fort. I walked back to the palace and went in just after it opened. It was built for the Christian Kings in the 13th century and was later used as the home of the Inquistors. The building isn't very big but there are large gardens out the back.

The small inside section has low ceilings and very simple shapes. There are some statues and a collection of chests. There is also a Roman sarcophagus (beats me as to why). There are several large mosaics on the walls which were saved from the floors of nearby villas and are from the Roman settlement in the 2nd to 4th centuries. From this area you can climb up to the fortress wall and to the top of one of the towers. The taller of the two towers is only open once or twice a day and you have to go on a guided tour to get up there. I don't think that it costs any extra though. The tower that you can climb offers good views though and you can see both over the city and the gardens of the palace. The steps up to the top are some of the dodgiest that I have been on recently (nothing like a worn set of spiral steps without any handrail!).

There are several sections to the garden. The first that you enter is a large courtyard full of orange trees. There is a small set of Islamic style baths off the side of the courtyard. They are in pretty poor repair and there is none of the decoration left at all. They have also concreted up the skylights (the little star type) and put lights into them to simulate the effect (which totally doesn't work). Off the Courtyard of the Orange trees is the main garden which has a series of terraces, pools and fountains. It is quite lovely even on a grey day in the winter so must be stunning in summer. There are fishponds, fountains, topiary trees, hedges, statues of former kings and queens, more orange trees and even a good old gum tree (not sure what it's doing here). I wandered around for a little while and then headed out. It took about an hour to wander around everything without rushing.

I headed up the street to the synagogue which is one of only three left in Spain after the Jews were expelled in the 16th century. This one was built in the 14th century and was saved because the building was used for other purposes afterwards. Parts of the stucco wall decorations remain but much of it has been damaged or changed to suit the needs of later users. A lot of the detail was covered over with plaster until a section of it fell off in the 19th century and the owners realised what was underneath. At that stage it was decided to try and conserve what was left. It is meant to be 30 cents for people who aren't from the EU but I couldn't find anyone to give my money to. They must not bother in the off season because there aren't many non-EU tourists around. It only takes a couple of minutes to look here because there is really only one small room that you can go into.

I then headed to the Archeological Museum but the long way around via the main square of the new city. There are some nice buildings in the middle of the new town and they remind me in style of the ones in central Valencia. I walked down one of the side streets off the square and went to one of the churches. It had some impressive baroque decorations. They seem to be big on the life-sized dolls on the altars here. All wax work and clothes. They have some of the Italian style tacky marble altars as well. I looked at the outside of St  Victorias as well but it was locked.

I then spent a little while looking for a street that appears not to exist despite clearly being on my map. I ended up going another way to get to the museum but at least I got there in the end (quite a feat in Cordoba even with a map). It is €1.50 for non-EU visitors and there are no signs in English within the museum. There is a short brochure that covers all the major exhibits and gives a general overview of each room for you. The first couple of rooms deal with Pre-Roman finds from the area and have an interesting collection of animal statues. The main section of the downstairs is Roman artefacts. There are large numbers of statues, busts and columns as well as some jewelry and metalware. Most of the stuff is fairly damaged but there are a couple of well preserved statues in the main courtyard. There are also several very large mosaics on the walls. Upstairs is the collection of Islamic pieces and medieval stuff. There isn't so much here but that is because a lot of the stuff is still in situ. It only took 40 minutes to wander around and look at everything but it is a lot faster when you can't read the signs.

I then had some lunch and wandered around the streets for a little while longer. It started to drizzle so I killed a couple of hours in an internet cafe (it is in Lucano street and is €2 per hour and you pay through the slots on the computers). It cleared a little later and I wandered around a little more. Cordoba is a good town to just wander around and see what you find. The little streets are full of things to find and if you don't aim to be somewhere in particular then you aren't lost!

Monday was a much quieter day mainly because almost everything in Cordoba is closed. I started with the Mezquita (pretty much the only major attraction that is open) which is free is you go in before 10am. I'm not sure what time it opens but it is definitely open by 8.30am for mass. You enter the complex through one of the sets of large bronze doors. I entered through the one that has the 16th century tower added to it. You end up in the Orange Garden which is full of orange trees. It is where the Muslims used to wash themselves before entering the mosque. You then pass through one of the large wooden carved doors into the mosque itself. Until you get inside you don't realise quite how big the building actually is. The rows of columns go on forever in both directions. It is very different to the other mosques that I have been into and was said to be revolutionary at the time that is was built. It was started in the 8th century and the final sections completed in the 10th century. In the 12th century it was turned into a church when the Christians recaptured the city and in the 16th century a large section of the centre of the building was pulled out and a church built within the main mosque. At this stage they also made chapels around the outside walls. It is terrible that they ruined a large part of one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Even at the time the King told the Church that they had gone too far. I suppose we should be grateful that they didn't just demolish the whole thing and rebuild on the site as they have in so many other places.

On the back wall of the mosque is the maksura which is decorated with gold mosaics (thankfully left intact) and a gorgeous dome. The columns around this section are much fancier and the wooden ceiling leading up to this area has carvings and paintings of flowers. It is just lovely.

The church in a different setting would probably look okay but the elaborate gothic styling looks totally out of place in the simple mosque lines. They haven't made any attempt to blend it in at all. It has just been plonked in the middle of the building. I only got to see the church section from the outside as the choir is closed for renovations at the moment but you can see enough. They have pulled out the simple wooden ceiling and replaced it with gothic vaulting. Over the choir it is decorated in the renaissance style with lots of large rosettes and angels and it is truly hideous (in any setting). They would have have to completely pull the roof off the building to do it as the roof in the church is much higher than that in the mosque. It must just make architects weep to come and see what was done.

The mosque section reminds me of the Cistern in Istanbul with rows of columns stretching out into the darkness. They are said to represent trees holding up the ceiling. The building used to have a lot more light as well because the doors around the building were open. They have now been sealed shut for the most part.

After about an hour I headed into the new section of the city, north of the mezquita. It was really cold and misty and quite unpleasant this morning. Definitely not what the weather forecast mentioned. I went to the Roman ruins which consists of 11 columns and a pile of rocks at the moment. They appear to be doing some work on the site so maybe they will rebuild some of it. The area is completely surrounded by houses and shops and looks forlorn all by itself. It seems to be the place for local cats to hang out and sleep in the sun though.

Opposite the ruins is the Church of San Pablo which has a very ornate entrance gate which is strangely offset to the main entrance into the church. It looks like modifications have been done at some stage though because the church is built into the buildings around it now and is missing part of its front facade. The inside is fairly plain with a lovely wooden ceiling for most of the church and a gothic stone vault over the altar. I tried to light another one of these stupid electric candles for Nan and again the machine just stole my money and didn't give me a light. Real candles only from now on (if I can find any).

I then spent a couple of hours chatting to Mum and Dad and working on my blog in a nearby internet cafe. It was so cold outside and nothing was open for indoor sight seeing so I decided that it was a good chance to warm up. Unfortunately it seems that the entire population of Spain was born in a tent because they kept leaving the door open and letting the cold in. I had to get up at least 4 times to close it behind people. I was very close to yelling at the next person who did it.

After that I went shopping for a couple of hours to try and find some new jeans. Unfortunately finding something without skinny legs and a three inch zip is quite difficult in Spain at the moment. I found one pair of bootleg jeans but they only came in size 10 and below (I suspect all the bigger sizes went straight away once people knew they were available). I went to the supermarket (there is a decent Dia supermarket just off the Tendillas Square) and grabbed some stuff for breakfast (virtually nothing opens for breakfast in the cafe department until 10am) and the bus today and then headed back down into the old town. By this stage the sun that they had forecast for days and which I hadn't seen at all finally had come out, so I wandered around and retook some of my photos with some blue sky in the background. The problem always is though that when you have blue sky you also have shadows and cameras don't cope well with those. I did get some nice ones of the outside of the Mezquita though.

This morning, I got up, repacked my bag (which had exploded all over the floor of the hotel) and headed to the bus station to come to Seville. I found the much easier route to the bus station than the one that I had taken on the way into town. You go directly up out of the Mezquita to Plaza Tendillas and then you take the main shopping street until you get to the end of it and you are on the big long park. Then it is just a matter of a few blocks up the street to the train station and then through the square to the bus station. Much easier than trying to take the backstreets and getting lost. It might be slightly longer in distance but is definitely quicker in time.

Just a tip for those going to Cordoba. It is hard to find a restaurant that serves food prior to 8pm. Many of them will still be open but will only serve drinks between 4 and 8pm. They will still have their menus out on the street and will appear open but they aren't really. Most of the other places close for a few hours in the afternoon and reopen around 8pm. If you want to eat earlier there is very little option as pretty much everything other than the Burger King is closed. You can't even get a sandwich or a kebab or anything like that. The other annoying thing is that most of the places don't advertise their opening hours on the door so you don't know when they are going to be open again. I found that a lot of the places didn't open the same hours everyday either so how you are meant to know I'm not sure. Maybe you just have to walk past and take your chances. There is a really good little supermarket in the street off the bottom of the Mezquita. With your back to the building turn left and continue along for about 2 blocks. It is on the right side of the street. It sells drinks, yogurts, cheese, snacks, meat, that sort of thing. The woman who runs it doesn't speak any English but is very patient as you try to speak Spanish and is very good at hand gestures. The hours are also erratic but it is often open when the restaurants are closed in the afternoon so you can grab a snack to keep you going until something opens.