Spain Part V: Cordoba

Our last stop in Andalucia was Cordoba. The planning for this town couldn't have worked out better: we had two full days in Cordoba (more than enough time to explore the relatively small old town), so we used part of our time here to relax and refresh before heading to much faster, larger cities in the north. Our hotel in Cordoba turned out to be really nice with a perfect rooftop pool! Laying by the pool and reading consumed most of our first day, and then we made the short 10-minute walk into town for dinner. We had picked out another great tapas place on a quiet street. We had tried a lot of great tapas by this point, but these were easily the best empanadas we've ever had in our lives. The entire dinner was amazing!

 The following day, we explored the old town some more. Similar to Granada, it has a really laid-back atmosphere and almost feels stuck in time as you wonder around. Again, the weather on both days could not have been better!

                                  

                                 

Instead of yet another meal out, we decided to stop in a grocery store and take a picnic back to the hotel. We picked up a tasty platter of Spanish cheeses and little toasts and ate our lunch while laying by the pool. Since most tourists are busy exploring during the day, we practically had the entire rooftop to ourselves.

Later in the afternoon, we ventured over to Cordoba's cathedral, which is the main attraction of the town. The cool thing about Cordoba's cathedral is that it used to be an Islamic mosque until 1236, at which point it was converted into a Christian cathedral. The decorations inside are mostly Christian, but the core architecture of the cathedral is still obviously Muslim. It was a really interesting twist in comparison to a lot of other cathedrals we'd seen lately.

These arches are typical of Islamic architecture and cover the entire expanse of the inside of the cathedral. It's really impressive when you first walk in!

Similar Islamic decoration to what we saw in the Alhambra in Granada and Real Alcazar in Sevilla.

                               

Here you can see Jesus on the cross, surrounded by Islamic arches and decoration...

A Christian-themed fresco painted onto the original arches...

A view of the outside of the cathedral...

Leaving the cathedral, we had some time before we went to dinner, so we decided to grab a drink outside at a random bar. While we were sitting there, one of our friends from Munich just casually walked into the bar. He's an American ex-pat as well, and we met him at Oktoberfest through some acquaintences and were just watching football with him two weeks ago. We had no idea he was going to Spain, let alone Cordoba and this bar, specifically. It was an unbelievable coincidence...

We finished off our last night in Codoba with some paella in a restaurant and headed back to our hotel. Fnishing up just over one week in Andalucia, we can honestly say it's been a great experience. The people have been incredibly nice (probably the nicest of all the places we've traveled), the weather was near perfect, the wine and food were excellent and the culture was far more interesting than we were originally expecting. All of this made leaving Andalucia a bit sad, but we were also excited for our final two stops: Madrid and Barcelona!

Bis später,

Matt and Kristin