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Published: February 9th 2009
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We were staying in Seville for 5 days, with intent to use it as a base for a couple of day trips into the countryside. We even had a tentative idea that we could go to Morocca - the boat goes across from the south coast and takes 35 min! - however further investigations revealed that it only went to Tangiers, and it would have cost us around $400 AUD for the day trip - not worth it to see Tangiers in my book!!
An early morning in Cordoba
But there is still plenty to see around Seville. The most obvious visit is Cordoba, which was an ancient capital of Al-Andalus back when the Muslims ruled the south of Spain. It was a freezing cold day and we left really early in the morning to beat the traffic. Had really terribly fog, and even with our foglights on, was a pretty nerve-wrecking experience for yours truly! Of course the really great thing about leaving is that you get there early - we rocked up there at 8:30am. And then figured out that nothing would open till 10 (!!). So much for being clever and avoiding tourists hah.
It
was still freezing cold. I swear I was almost as white as Catherine. Sahara of course was happy in her multiple layers and covered pram. So we found ourselves the only open café (which was thankfully heated!), and indulged ourselves over the next hour.
Cordoba has got several things to see, however we were really there to see the Mesquita - it's a massive mosque which got turned into a cathedral when the Christian Monarchs took over from the Muslims. It was incredible - absolutely huge with amazing carvings and paintings - unfortunately with no heating so we were still freezing!! But it was well worth the 100km drive. The guard wouldn't let me use the tripod in the building though, so was very difficult to get decent photos. We did try.
Also went for a wander in the medina that housed the Mesquita. Think lots of narrow alleys with high bright white walls, and old cobblestoned roads, and you've got it. It was a cool experience because people still lived here in buildings that were several hundred years old!
On to Carmona!
We also headed out to Carmona to see a really little town built
on a hill, set in the middle of rural Spain, surrounded by gorgeous green hills. Really pretty with a long walk up to the top of the city to a 'parador' (hotel in an old palace etc - very beautiful but just slightly beyond our budgets!!) So we walked up to the top through winding streets to the parador, sat and had very expensive coffee and cake and then walked back down taking myriads of photo along the way!
Incidentally, I struggle to see the difference between the Arabic 'medinas' like we saw in Cordoba, and the 'historic' cities we see in Europe - they all have the same narrow cobblestoned roads with high walled buildings on either side, etc. Still beautiful though.
We concluded that Carmona was one of those sights that gets easily overlooked - it's only about 40 km from Seville, and yet doesn't feature on any of the must-do lists - yet we really loved this city! Would highly recommend a visit if you are planning to go to Seville.
OK that's it for our day trips. We're now going to get into our car and drive to Granada, stopping in at
The medina at Cordoba
Doesn't it look similar to Carmona? a few cities along the way. Stay tuned!
PS: Just in case you were thinking of taking your 18month old on holiday with you - we can absolutely recommend it! Much as we might complain about lack of sleep and plane journeys - Sahara has been a little trooper - she has been dragged across the other end of the world - has no idea what time of day it is or what she is supposed to be feeling and is being an angel - sitting beautifully in her pram, trying lots of new food, braving the cold with her new hat and coat and generally loving all the attention that she is getting from both her parents! She has a new trick - when she is not getting enough attention (ie we are playing cards, talking to each other not her etc) she decides that she has to kiss us - so she goes from me to dave kissing us - she knows we won't be able to resist her and she is completely right - whatever we are doing gets stopped and we play with our baby just as it should be!
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capta sby
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incroyable..; it's an great journay..