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Published: August 23rd 2009
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Cordoba and Seville day 3-5 (July 13- July 15)
Metro and Bus to Cordoba and then local bus to the hotel. The hotel was right near the old town. Another very hot day so we had a short orientation walk and then very glad to visit the beautiful Mesquita not the least because it was wonderfully cool inside. This was a Mosque that had a Catholic Church inside. The Moorish design, with arches and marble pillars, and decorative walls were all left in place with the Catholic church making use of alcoves along the side, and placing the church itself in the middle. While the church pieces were impressive they appeared opulent and somewhat over the top alongside the more elegant design of the Moorish building.
Some late tapas for lunch and then a siesta before dinner, nothing opening until at least 8pm around here. The streets of Cordoba were quiet even at 8pm but by the time we had finished dinner there were many people out and about enjoying the cool of the evening.
We left early the next morning, taking taxi’s to the bus station as we left in peak hour, and then an hour and
a half to Seville. We took a local bus to the hotel, which was packed not the least with all our luggage. Our hotel was a beautiful Spanish building, with alcove inside.
After lunch we took an hour and a half orientation walk around Seville passing the Alcazar (palace) and Cathedral (3rd largest in world by footprint, largest by volume) and also the plaza de Espana - which had been built in 1929 for Spain’s turn at the World Fair but which flopped due the start of the great depression. This structure incorporated beautiful mosaic works to represent all the regions of Spain. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant that had a Michelin recommendation. Great tapas and a salmon salad for me.
Heading out early the following day I went to the Alcazar. This was a truly beautiful Moorish palace, with tile work and ceiling ornamentation and some huge tapestries. The palace gardens were fantastic and you could really imagine royalty strolling around these beautiful grounds. This was a real highlight.
After a coffee and cake break, I visited the Cathedral which also still had many Moorish elements. There were a group of miners on a
hunger strike in the northern part of the church, wanting to be compensated for something I couldn’t work out. The cathedral was huge and held many treasures and rich Catholic ornamentation but after coming from the Alcazar it all seemed again over the top. The minaret still remained from the original mosque and this had been converted into a bell tower. The walk to the top was worth the views of Seville it afforded.
We met for tapas before going to a Flamenco performance, via a maze of windy streets. The flamenco was fantastic, with very serious dancing, but I was even more impressed by the singing and the superb guitar playing. Our leader explained that flamenco is normally performed by family group members and is learned from a very young age, being quite a difficult rhythm to learn.
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tezzakezza
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He He, another place to go on my list :-) K