Blogs from Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain, Europe - page 7

My objective today was to visit Jaen and Zuheros or Baena. And we wanted to lay in some food supplies for the week. And we wanted to cook at the house that evening. Ummm yeah…that was too tall an order to fill. The day didn’t quite work out the way in which I had envisioned. First of all, for those of you that may or may not know, Beth & I are teaching at the same school. I am teaching Spanish. I believe that for someone acquiring a second language, classroom study is too much an abstract environment and some level of immersion is really needed to achieve some level of competency. Plus, I am an enthusiastic advocate of traveling and having what I call “the authentic experience.” I also tell my students to: “Live the ... read more

We flew into Madrid and arrived at 7AM. The next leg of the journey was to take the high speed AVE train to Córdoba and pick up our rental vehicle at the train station. Although one does not necessarily have to make reservations for the train, I thought it would be prudent to have assured seats since I was not familiar with the amount of travelers on a Sunday afternoon. Tip: Although RENFE (the Spanish train company) has an online reservation site and it also offers discounts for reservations online, that proved to be an impossible task to accomplish. Beth and I tried for two successive days and finally gave up. While I was doing additional research for ticket purchasingI did find a reference to a company’s website through which one can purchase discount tickets for ... read more

Ok, 4th day in a row drunk on Sangria, so let’s hope we can make this blog at least a little coherent ;-) Had a great drive through to Cordoba, across vast plains that remind you of the ‘wild west’ and some stunning landscapes. Didn’t take long to get to Cordoba, and then, again with google map directions in hand (rubbish), we managed to wing it through the town and down and around tiny one-way cobbled lanes we weren’t at first sure we’d fit down (quickly trying to retract the wing mirrors!).... eventually made it to the Hotel Maestro, another pleasant surprise – friendly staff, charming courtyard, clean and comfy rooms and smack bang in middle of town again. Doing well with accommodation! In the afternoon we went for a stroll around the old town, including ... read more

Ten weekend byl prawdziwym turystycznym tour de force. W sobote wyruszylam z Sevilli do Cordoby, wrocilam 12h pozniej, zeby w niedziele rano pojechac do Granady i wrocic po polnocy. Oprocz braku snu i nadmiaru chodzenia, najbardziej zmeczyly mie tabuny ludzi. Jest pazdziernik, a tu bilety do Alhambry wykupione i wszedzie tlum swietych krow, chodzacych bez skladu i ladu. Pozuja do zdjec w pieciu ustawieniach - w tym dobre sa szczegolnie Polki (kolanko do przodu i kwiat we wlosach), zatrzymuja sie na srodku sciezki w najmniej oczekiwanym momencie, zadaja za duzo pytan pani, co w okienku sprzedaje bilety i nie rozumieja odpowiedzi. I grupy, ktore tarasuja drogi ewakuacyjne. Chodzac po Alhambrze zagladalam ludziom w monitory aparatow, bo nie moglam uwierzyc, co fotografuja. Chodzili jak jednookie cyklopy, ogladajac swiat przez obiektyw aparatu. Ze fotografuja szybe, w ktorej odbija ... read more

Saturday 17th July 8.30am we boarded The Avanti train -not the fastest- pulled out of Logrono with us and the 29ers. yee haa Time to just sit and take in the Spanish countryside- olives grapes olives grapes and more grapes and olives. The occassional little all white village and of course the ever prominent belltower- a very pleasant way to spend 6 hours after the gift of our 4 day hike (even managed to repair my trousers). Change over at Madrid to the AVE, short for very fast train - ran like a Spanish clock not quite Swiss but you would not of wanted to be a minute late for departure. At 2.30 we pulled into Cordova in Andulucia having topped 325 kph!!! Cordova was to be our homebase while we visited some of the ... read more