Córdoba

A Morning to Ourselves As we arrived to Córdoba at 7:45 on a Saturday morning, the city was empty. Nothing was open. No one was outside except a few revelers from the night before. 

As nothing was open, we decided to stop at an attraction you can’t really close. We stopped by some Roman ruins first. Roman ruins this far west of Italy amaze us. It is incredible what the Romans were able to achieve so long ago.  These ruins were just “found” when Córdoba decided to expand city hall. Seeing the ruins without the rush of the day gave us a chance to really enjoy the ruins (and the cats basking in the morning sunlight).

After the ruins, we headed down to the river to an even more remarkable site.  The origins of the Roman Bridge of Córdoba date back to the 1st century BC.  The current bridge is a fixed up version dating from around 7-800 AD.  We were almost all to ourselves as we walked across the river and up and down the bridge.

We were the only people awake it seems.

And the Tours Go On Our first tour of the day begin in the Jewish quarter of the city. It seems most every city in Spain has a Jewish Quarter and an Arab/Muslim Quarter.  While the Jewish section was only three streets (not enough streets to cover a 2-3 hour tour), we learned quite a bit about Jews in Córdoba during the rise of Christianity (it was not good). The Jews were pushed out around 900 AD and the city left the section to rot for a while. We were able to visit a former synagogue and learn more about the history of the synagogue and how it transition to a Christian church.   

The tour took us to former baths of the Muslims as well as another Alcazar.  The history behind both was fascinating and our guide was excellent. He was able to cover many centuries of history with southern Spain and its transition from the Moors to the Catholics and the Romans and Visigoths before them.  We ended the tour with getting to enjoy some Roman mosaics from 100 BC and the Alcazar gardens.

Roman mosaics found that were originally found on the floor. Carefully, they removed the mosaic floors and placed them on walls to display.

View from the roof of the Alcazar.

Alcazar gardens.

We had to end the tour at the 3:15 hour mark to make our tour at the Mezquita. Our guide was kind enough to stop everything and escort us to the Mezquita to ensure we made our next tour. The Mezquita, also known as the Mosque-Cathedral, is a massive Mosque with a Cathedral in the middle of it. It was first a Visigoth Catholic church before being leveled and turned into a mosque around the 800’s. It is a breathtaking site, particularly on the inside.  The Moorish architects really knew how to build something special and interesting.  It would be too easy to go on and on about the building, but instead lets just share a few photos. Clay only took a few hundred pictures.

Here we are standing in the last addition of the Mosque. This was added at the end of the reign of the Moors. It was made for cheaper and generally does not look as good as the original sections.

The cathedral portion built in the middle.

Another minaret turned bell tower.

The Mihrab.

The engraving on the column is a signature of the artisan who created the column. The only way they were paid was to show there signature on the column to let the boss know they created it.

Sometime in the 1200’s the Catholics moved into the neighborhood and petitioned to build a cathedral in the middle of the mosque as a way to Christianize it. They managed to mess up the middle of the building, closing off archways and tearing out columns. Charles V ordered that the cathedral be built within the Mosque but once the cathedral was completed he was upset and supposedly said “they have taken something unique in all the world and destroyed it to build something you can find in any city.” Luckily enough of the original mosque remains and it still has a great deal of character.

The Great Churro Search We left the Mezquita to find some churros at a stand we passed while on our Jewish tour. By this point all the stores were closed for siesta and no churro could be found.  Instead we grabbed a bite to eat at Garum 2.1.  We enjoyed some more patatas bravas and a bull tail churro, consisting of bull tail meat. We enjoyed much less the pureed tomato and bread gazpacho.

We walked around the city some more, down by the river, and searched for a churro.  We arrived back in Sevilla at around 8:30 PM with no churros. We did enjoy riding in first class on the way back on the train. Elizabeth is still of the opinion that we were in the wrong train car. The difference in first class is fewer seats, a movie playing for your convenience, and a distinct lack of teenagers. It was not as if we enjoyed champagne and caviar, but Clay did enjoy the lack of teenagers.

Having no luck with the churros in Córdoba, we headed out to find them the moment we got back to Sevilla.  Finding the best churro place in Sevilla was easy.  They were closed. Clay was inconsolable. And badmouthing all of Spain and their siestas, their narrow roads, and obsession with potatoes.

So we decided to just go home. Clay needed food to make him happy. Thankfully we found some on the way home.  In the form of potatoes. A small store selling freshly cooked potato chips. Plainly salted and nothing else. They were great. Like a warm Golden Flake Thin N Crispy chip. God bless potatoes.

We also added some donut holes on a stick to our walk at another store. One half sugar, the other half chocolate dipped. It made the lack of churros palatable.

We finished the night with more cured meat and cheese and an early bedtime. We were leaving for Granada at 8 AM. Where we would finally get churros.