Córdoba mezquita

Yesterday was exhausting, but in the end, awe-inspiring. We began in Seville, where we had breakfast under Las Setas–the mushrooms.

We barely made our train to Córdoba but it was a pleasant 45 minute ride through farm country. The modern part of Córdoba, which we passed through in a taxi, is an ordinary small city. The old city, around the Mosque-Cathedral (the Mezquita) is medieval with narrow, winding lanes leading to a touristic center where tapas bars and leather shops vie for customers.

We had signed up for a tour of the Jewish quarter but after visiting the tiny historic synagogue (the only such structure still standing in Andalusia) we peeled off from the group since the guide was neither knowledgeable nor comprehensible. We visited a museum of Sephardic history, which was a hodgepodge of artifacts, some of them interesting. An example: apparently the Sephardim invented a method of making gold and silver threads which were used for elaborate costumes.

If I sound less than enthusiastic, it was because I was exhausted and in pain from my bursitis. I had booked tickets to a tour of the Mezquita by night which began at 9:30 and nearly bagged it. But I fortified myself with some wine and dragged my butt the 1/4 mile with Libby where we were both blown away. They did a sound and light show which allowed one to see the original mosque without the distraction of the later cathedral which was built within it. Stunning and spectacular.

This morning I returned to see it in its normal form. The grandeur of it remained but the Christian accretions detracted from the experience of it.

Off to Granada this afternoon.