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Published: June 22nd 2017
Heading out from Granada was rather more relaxed than finding our way in to the apartment. The narrow roads were less daunting with prior familiarity.
We elected to journey to Cordoba via the sea port city of Malaga. Hmm. It seemed rather unwelcoming to motoring visitors looking for a parking spot and a place for a bite to eat. Various road changes meant that sat-nav maps were taking us around in circles also. Disenchanted we headed out without our stop and soon arrived in the city of Cordoba with its rich flamenco culture. Unbeknown to us we had arrived during the Spring Festival - Feria de Mayo - where much street entertainment and party mood were in full flight. Many groups of girls were dressed in either traditional flamenco style or else in brightly coloured attire and playing up to the max for any camera pointed in their general direction. To complement, there was the odd male, or so Liz tells me, in flamenco style attire.
We lucked out on a recommended Tapas bar for dinner but were well catered to on an evening that was very busy for the restaurateurs.
A high breakfast charge at the Hotel
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A big bit of bling.has us exploring the streets with a satisfying result of coffee, juice, tostadas and croissants.
First visit for this Sunday morning was the Palacio de Viana with its glorious patio gardens and palatial interiors that reflect the power and wealth of the original owners from the 15th through to the 19th centuries. A great collection of artwork including paintings, tapestries and leather carvings adorned the halls and grand rooms. Unfortunately there was a complete ban on photography inside the building which seemed rather unnecessary in the broader scheme of things but consequently we can only present some photos of the gardens or patios as they call them.
From there down to the river area to reflect upon the roman ruins which included some amazing bridge and fort structures and river diversion to power a water wheel for milling flour etc. in a bygone time. Quite an amazing feat really.
The queue to enter Cordoba's main claim to fame, the Mezquita Catedral, was intimidating to say the least but we managed to get our entry tickets later in the afternoon and were quite gob-smacked by the immensity of this building. Rivalling the Alhambra but on a quite different
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Soaring columns and arches scale the architectural details and religious artifacts were stunning. The number of people visiting through the day must have exceeded 10,000 such is its popularity. The original structure was created during the Muslim reign of the 9th Century but its "ownership" has alternated between Christian and Muslim several times since with a Catholic church now embedded within the original mosque building. All of which brings the world's current conflicts between the two groups to mind and maybe with some new context for us.
A comment is needed on the size of this building and at a guess I would say it would fit the MCG inside it. Certainly the playing field if not all of the stands. Something of the order of 24,000 square metres and so I checked, the ground is about 20,000 sq metres.
Think about this size all under a roof constructed so many centuries ago. Truly outstanding.
A quick glance at the device suggested we had covered 16,500 steps for the day which confirmed the feeling in our legs and so we retired satisfied with our day's outing.
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