Calamari - Our Thanksgiving dinner

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I can see this project is going to take on a life of its own. My original plan had been to update the blog weekly but.... I can see that if I leave it that long I will be writing a book every time I log on!

Yesterday we travelled to Cordoba, which lies about 160 km North West of Granada. A beautiful cross country drive through miles and miles of undulating hills covered with olive groves and the mountains off in the far distance. We stopped in a tiny village and sat in the square for our morning coffee. All the locals did a double take as they drove by and saw us sitting there - I think it was the Tilley hat that confused them.

It is a good thing it was Sunday and traffic was light because it was very difficult finding our hotel which is right in the medieval quarter along a whole series of very narrow one way streets.

One driver, three assistants and poorly printed out internet map does not make a good recipe for success! 4 days into the trip and a proper map has been purchased which makes things a little easier even if not 100%.

In one of these photos you will notice the narrow roads (paths?) we have to contend with. If a car is coming, you literally have to flatten yourself against the wall so it can get by - they do not stop for anyone.

I wonder how often I am going to say ¨"I continue to be amazed" on this trip? Cordoba is lovely but the most amazing part is the Mezquita Cathedral - a former mosque with a Christian cathedral built in its middle. We though the Alhambra was quite something - well, I would not want to have to choose because this world heritage sight is quite spectacular and photos will not do it justice.

Actually, we were lucky the Cathedral was open today - Monday - as most things are closed in Spain on Mondays. So we spent a good portion of the day, roaming around in the heat. It turned out that this was the only attraction we actually got into in Cordoba because on the Tuesday they closed ALL attractions. This was a safety precaution because some kind of european congress get together was being held, including representatives from Israel and there were security concerns. It was interesting watching them seal all the drains etc. - a good time to be leaving town!

We have had lots of fun getting on the Spanish meal schedule which consists of breakfast around 10am, lunch sometime between 1:30 and 3:30pm and dinner anytime after 8:30 pm. This is a bit of a problem for us early birds who have breakfast at about 8:30am and who, after walking around all day, want to go to bed at 10pm. We try and make lunch (which is usually a three course set meal) our main meal and just have a snack later. Nobody rushes you here and lunch can easily take two hours.

We have just arrived in Seville - more about that in the next episode.

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Comments

[martin]

great pics and blog
keep it up m

[Christian]

Not Jealous
Did you hear? We went to Central Park in Burnaby last weekend. It was cool, sort of...

[Cissy]

good to get your blog ( now I know what a blog is !!) sounds like a great holiday -- I've always thought Spain would be a good place to spend the winter -- wonder what the weather would be like -- I guess we son't be seeing you in Devon - can't get George to make it and I don't feel like coming on my own -- but give all our love -lots of love to you both -- cissy