More Moorish in Cordoba the Great (Cordoba)
Our plan for travelling through Spain was to end up in Barcelona (in the north-east) via Valencia. This meant that we needed to backtrack again to Madrid to get a connecting train to the east. Granada is down in the south so instead of heading back northwards through Seville, we took an alternative route via Cordoba.
Cordoba ended up being our favourite city. The weather was great. The tourist attractions were fantastic (although some of the sights like a historical bridge were closed for renovations - dammit!). The food was great. We did get lost but we had a happy ending (meaning we ended up having a fantastic dinner in a not-so-touristy area). The hostel was the best place we stayed in for the whole four weeks. The room was on the ground floor (perfect when you've got heavy and cumbersome backpacks). It was close to everything and the room was as nice as any 3 star hotel. Even when Tam forgot to pack a pair of jeans when we left they posted it to us in Barcelona free of charge. Now how nice is that? We'll definitely stay there the next time we're over there.
Cordoba loves the archangel Raphael. There are statues of Raphael all over the place. Why? Because he saved the city from the plague and is known as their Protector. That's the Mezquita in the back.
This is the Mezquita (a mosque-cathedral), the main tourist attraction in Cordoba. It was first built as a mosque on a former Visigothic cathedral site, and then shared with Christians before being solely a mosque and then recaptured during the Reconquista by the Spanish and became a Christian church and then later converted into a Christian cathedral. It makes you wonder whether there is some significance to religious sites (as they keep the rebuild or convert one temple into another) or if its just out of convenience or (God forbid) plain laziness. Anyway, the Mesquita is a very cool place. It's fascinating to see all the islamic architecture (mudejar arches and ornamental decorations) and symbols juxtaposed with all the Catholic/Christian statues, paintings and things. You can't help but have your breath taken away by the sheer size and wonder of it all.
A sword in Mary. Sort of like the axe in Mary in Vienna.
Someone call Dan Brown! We found this curious painting of The Last Supper inside. There seems to be twelve disciples there, but the one sitting on Jesus' left appears to have very feminine facial features and a visible lack of beardedness.
There was this cool little local artisan market nearby which we checked out. Here's Tam and her girls shopping for some ceramic pots.
Cool plates and mirrors.
Later on, we headed over to the Jewish quarter where we visited the small and square 700 year old Synagogue.
Tam enjoying a not too fantastic ice cream. See that statue over in the fountain? He has a white head. I'm not sure why that is. I think it was intentional and not because of the local pigeons.
We took a wrong turn off the map and ended up at this eerily lit up cathedral outside of town.
We eventually made our way back onto the map and into a huge square (not too unlike the Forum in Leichhardt) where we found El Sotano tucked away in a corner. We tried to decipher the Spanish menu with the very handy and frequently used Spanish phrasebook that Tina lent us, however, a lot of the menu choices weren't in the book. So we went with what we thought things might be. Can't remember what we had but we do remember that the food was fantastic and that they also brought us someone else's meal (that we ate as we didn't have a clue what we ordered anyway which they did not charge us for). The wine was pretty alright too.
Pretty tiles outside a church.
The Paseo del Potro. Notable for being mentioned in Cervantes' epic Don Quixote de la Mancha.
That's pretty much all there was to do in Cordoba (besides some museums like the cool museum of Julio Romero de Torres where he liked to paint a lot of the local ladies, another Alcazar castle and a segway-riding school), but it seemed like a lot and was just right. The next day we walked back to the square and had a very Spanish breakfast of a macchiato (called a "cortado"), and some tostado con tomates y aceite (toast with olive oil and fresh tomato puree). We visited some souvenir shops and then it was time for us to go. It was the perfect place for a bit of sightseeing and a bit of relaxation. We had a great time there.
Cordoba ended up being our favourite city. The weather was great. The tourist attractions were fantastic (although some of the sights like a historical bridge were closed for renovations - dammit!). The food was great. We did get lost but we had a happy ending (meaning we ended up having a fantastic dinner in a not-so-touristy area). The hostel was the best place we stayed in for the whole four weeks. The room was on the ground floor (perfect when you've got heavy and cumbersome backpacks). It was close to everything and the room was as nice as any 3 star hotel. Even when Tam forgot to pack a pair of jeans when we left they posted it to us in Barcelona free of charge. Now how nice is that? We'll definitely stay there the next time we're over there.
Cordoba loves the archangel Raphael. There are statues of Raphael all over the place. Why? Because he saved the city from the plague and is known as their Protector. That's the Mezquita in the back.
This is the Mezquita (a mosque-cathedral), the main tourist attraction in Cordoba. It was first built as a mosque on a former Visigothic cathedral site, and then shared with Christians before being solely a mosque and then recaptured during the Reconquista by the Spanish and became a Christian church and then later converted into a Christian cathedral. It makes you wonder whether there is some significance to religious sites (as they keep the rebuild or convert one temple into another) or if its just out of convenience or (God forbid) plain laziness. Anyway, the Mesquita is a very cool place. It's fascinating to see all the islamic architecture (mudejar arches and ornamental decorations) and symbols juxtaposed with all the Catholic/Christian statues, paintings and things. You can't help but have your breath taken away by the sheer size and wonder of it all.
A sword in Mary. Sort of like the axe in Mary in Vienna.
Someone call Dan Brown! We found this curious painting of The Last Supper inside. There seems to be twelve disciples there, but the one sitting on Jesus' left appears to have very feminine facial features and a visible lack of beardedness.
There was this cool little local artisan market nearby which we checked out. Here's Tam and her girls shopping for some ceramic pots.
Cool plates and mirrors.
Later on, we headed over to the Jewish quarter where we visited the small and square 700 year old Synagogue.
Tam enjoying a not too fantastic ice cream. See that statue over in the fountain? He has a white head. I'm not sure why that is. I think it was intentional and not because of the local pigeons.
We took a wrong turn off the map and ended up at this eerily lit up cathedral outside of town.
We eventually made our way back onto the map and into a huge square (not too unlike the Forum in Leichhardt) where we found El Sotano tucked away in a corner. We tried to decipher the Spanish menu with the very handy and frequently used Spanish phrasebook that Tina lent us, however, a lot of the menu choices weren't in the book. So we went with what we thought things might be. Can't remember what we had but we do remember that the food was fantastic and that they also brought us someone else's meal (that we ate as we didn't have a clue what we ordered anyway which they did not charge us for). The wine was pretty alright too.
Pretty tiles outside a church.
The Paseo del Potro. Notable for being mentioned in Cervantes' epic Don Quixote de la Mancha.
That's pretty much all there was to do in Cordoba (besides some museums like the cool museum of Julio Romero de Torres where he liked to paint a lot of the local ladies, another Alcazar castle and a segway-riding school), but it seemed like a lot and was just right. The next day we walked back to the square and had a very Spanish breakfast of a macchiato (called a "cortado"), and some tostado con tomates y aceite (toast with olive oil and fresh tomato puree). We visited some souvenir shops and then it was time for us to go. It was the perfect place for a bit of sightseeing and a bit of relaxation. We had a great time there.
posted by DnT Blog Guest at
11:45 AM
1 Comments:
i like the arches...they are so many of them!
successive conquerors may have built on each other's temples because they didn't have this idea of preserving places in situ, like a museum.
may be those places are very central, and the best place for a place of worship to be.
and i also think that any conqueror, esp of a different religion, would also like to take over another religion's place of worship...as a symbol of dominance...
i like the blue&white tiles on red walls :-)
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case-in-point, at 10:16 PM
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