Leisurely start to the morning, so no really good excuse as to why both Simon and I forgot to hand in our keycards to reception when we left the hotel this morning.
A quick taxi ride to the train station, and 15 minutes later we were sitting in the train, waiting to go. Train travel is so much less of a faff than flying, I’d choose it every time if I could.
The taxi in Cordoba could only get us within a few hundred metres of our hotel, due to the narrow winding streets.
We were too early to check in, so went down to the riverside to have lunch at a place the concierge recommended. The food was modern and fusion, it was great, I must confess a welcome break from all the authentic local food we’ve been eating lately. Our guide on the food tour the other day said Spaniards just don’t eat vegetables, and it’s true. I remember that from when I was here last time. It’s a struggle. No 5 plus a day for them.
After lunch we walked across the Roman bridge to our meeting with our latest tour guide. Rita had been very keen not to miss the Alcazar here since we’d been unable to see the one in Seville. Unfortunately, this tour was only a walking tour around the middle of the old town, stopping only on the outside of famous buildings. In fact, most of the monuments close on Sunday afternoons. So, that was a disappointment. The Synagogue was going to close shortly, so, sensing our displeasure, she walked us at speed back through the old town to get there before it closed.
There is a paucity of Synagogues in Spain, the one in Cordoba is one of the only ones left. It was pretty tiny compared with all the huge churches around. Our guide was on her third tour of the day, all in different languages, and was obviously very tired. Her heavily accented English was probably always going to be a struggle to follow but it was even worse with her flustered and fatigued.
The history of Cordoba is again a mix of Romans, Christians, and Muslims, with a few Jews for good measure. After the Synagogue, our guide talked about this chap.
I don’t remember who he is, but the lady was astounded that none of us had ever heard of him: “But he’s very important!” I’ve never had a tour guide before so patently astonished at my ignorance. Clearly Muslim and Jewish history of Cordoba in the Middle Ages is not going to be my Mastermind specialist subject.
Cordoba had its heyday back in Roman times, is was the second biggest Roman city after Rome*. Its fortunes have dwindled since then, Chris Columbus did the dirty on them after “discovering” the Americas, giving the trading rights to Seville, and then its river silted up shortly after that, putting paid to shipping. This probably explains why the old town is so well preserved.
Cordoba is also known for its patios, little shared courtyards that are often brightly decorated with blue flower pots on the walls.
After three painful hours we finally parted ways with our guide and had a look around the Cathedral by ourselves. This was originally a Mosque (but actually a Roman temple of some sort before that) but was then converted to a cathedral once Christianity got the upper hand. They sensibly retained a lot of the gorgeous architecture but put their own stamp on it.
By now we were quite fatigued also and it was quite late, so we repaired back to the hotel and then set out for dinner.
The restaurant didn’t even open its doors until 8:30, by which time there was a big queue outside. The food was traditional Spanish, I made the mistake again of ordering a vegetarian dish of mushrooms which I thought no one could stuff up but I underestimated the ingenuity of the kitchen. The resulting dish was virtually inedible. Luckily everyone else had very nice meals and our waiter was great fun in his second language, making jokes about his mother in law. Another late night after too much eating and drinking.
*Simon tells me this is not correct. It was important to the Romans but probably not the second largest city. Its greatest moment was under the Moors when it was one of the largest cities in the world, around the year 1000. It had more libraries, universities, palaces, baths, aqueducts, mills, and gardens than you could shake a stick at. They blew it by fighting amongst themselves, as far as I can tell.