Kiwi Roaming

Arriving (and leaving) Córdoba the countryside is kms and kms of Olive trees – for as far as you can see. We arrived there by bus from Almería and were struck by how different the landscape is to the desert conditions we had just left. The city feels small and walkable but it’s actually the 12th largest in Spain and we only scratched the surface with the older parts of town. It’s quite a long way inland so slightly cooler without the Mediterranean Sea breeze or the desert to keep the temperatures up – so low 20’s – but being in the mountains it does get to 50C in the summer! eek.

Our wee apartment was on the 4th (top) floor of a small building just off a main shopping precinct which was busy by day but fairly quiet at night (other than the street cleaning). We were only there for 2 nights essentially to see the Mezquita but did have time to wander around and get a feel for the place.

With 4 UNESCO world heritage sites here it is very well set up for the tourists! lots of hotels, tapas bars, tat shops and things to do like sherry or olive oil tastings. The Mezquita and Roman Bridge – which was built 1st century and is pretty awesome to walk across – the Alcazar and it’s gardens, the Jewish quarter and the Patio’s are all in the same area of the city making it easy to see much of it in one day. We didn’t get to the Patio’s being here on a Monday and Tuesday they weren’t open to the public unfortunately.

Victoria is a very prominent name here in honour of the first saint of Córdoba who (as wikipedia puts it) “She suffered martyrdom” for not worshipping the Romans so was tortured for that…. She lived in the 3rd century and must have been amazing because her name is used everywhere. She and her brother are now patron saints of Córdoba. They have another Saint they love Saint Raphael who the people prayed to and he made the plague disappear in the Middle Ages! so they have made a few statues of him too.

Even staying such a short time we loved the food scene in Córdoba, on our first night we went to an Egyptian restaurant for shawarma then the next day we sat in a square in the 22C heat and enjoyed wonderful tapas for lunch. The first drink I ordered there was a vino blanca which turned out to be a Sav, which I drunk and liked enough (although didn’t order a second one). We also had a quick wine in a square in the evenings just because and these were €3.

Our train wasn’t until 1pm on Wednesday so we had grand plans to go out site seeing early again but it rained – and when it rains here it really rains. Luckily no flooding like happened in Seville that day but serious quantities. So a lazy morning before a rushed walk reciting “The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain” and discussing how My Fair Lady got that very wrong. Our train was retrasado along with all of the other ones due in, so we stood waiting until they opened up the queue for us to go through security then waited on the platform avoiding the leaks! Travel days are often less productive.