Spanish Trip 5 - Cordoba to Cabo de Gata

13 - 20 October

Walls and bridges

There was a bus service, albeit infrequent, from the site at Villafranca to Cordoba, which we used on both the days we were there. On the first day our priority was to visit the cathedral/ mosque (mezquita) - just as well, as most other sights were closed on Mondays!

A bit of history …. A Christian church was originally founded on the site in AD600 but was converted into a mosque in 785. Since then it was enlarged four times giving it a capacity of 40,000. In 1236 the mosque was reconverted to a Christian church after Ferdinand III of Castile recaptured Cordoba.  Instead of destroying the mosque, the overawed Christians elected to modify it and various changes have been made in the intervening 700+ years.  In 2004 Spanish Muslins petitioned to be able to worship in the Mezquita again, but the Vatican withheld its consent.

We spent a good two hours following our audio guides and were enthralled by the Mezquita arches, the Capilla Mayor (the Gothic church commissioned by Charles V in the 16^th century and planted in the middle of the mosque), the cathedral choir, the mihrab (a scallop shaped prayer niche facing Mecca added in the 10^th century)…..  The visit ends where it began, in the Patio de los Naranjos, a shady courtyard of orange trees.

Mezquita Arches

Ceiling of Capilla Mayor

Mihrab

A walk across the Roman bridge, a quick look at the Moorish water wheel, and a wander through the Jewish quarter filled the rest of day one.

Roman Bridge

Moorish Water Wheel

Cordoba is well- known for its pretty patios of container plants and we planned to visit a selection on Tuesday - except that they choose Tuesday as their day of closure. I think we had a misunderstanding at the tourist office! However, a couple of them had rebelled and were in fact open.

Patio

We also trekked across the other side of town to Palacio de Viana, where the garden comprises 12 individually themed patios. 

We were underwhelmed by the Alcazar (fortress) although the gardens were attractive.

Gardens at Alcazaar

The flamenco centre gave us an insight into the history of flamenco, which set the scene for the performance we attended in the evening. The guitarist, singer and five dancers were first class, exuding considerable passion as you would expect.

From Cordoba we moved to a site on the edge of the Sierra Nevada in the vicinity of Granada for three days. After a short walk in the hills on day one we had an afternoon of much needed rest and relaxation.

Village of Guejar Sierra, in the Sierra Nevada

On day two we used the local bus to travel into Granada. The city is quite spread out so we used the hop on hop off train, which arrived promptly at each stop every 20 minutes. The only problem was that it only had a capacity of about 40 passengers so you could never be sure of a place. However, we looked at the Alhambra from the Albaicin side, visited the very ornate Carthusian monastery, and walked through part of the Albaicin, where there are many Arab-style tea rooms.

Carthusian Monastery

On the third day we visited the Alhambra, comprising the Palacio Nazaries, two other palaces, the fortress (Alcazaba), the gardens and the summer palace. The interior designs of the Palacio Nazaries are so intricate and beautiful. Needless to say, it was very busy with tour parties galore.

View from the fortress (Alcazaba)

Inside the Palacio Nazaries

Gardens at the Alhambra

After a night of heavy rain, we left Granada bound for Cabo de Gata, on the south east tip of Spain, driving along the edge of the cloud-capped and occasionally snow-capped Sierra Navada. At one point a sign indicated a height of 1380 m at Puerto de la Mora and the thermometer read 8 deg C. The scenery varied with the altitude, areas of forest giving way to scrubland, then bare rock, which looked like a lunar landscape.