Day 13 - Cordoba (17-Apr-2018)

First thing to attend to this morning was the accommodation in Seville. After short listing 5 from Airbnb with whom contact was made; going back and forth with questions, we made the decision to stay at Maria’s house from 18 to 20 April. More on this tomorrow.

Got to talk about a couple of events from yesterday; retired one of my favourite T shirts bought from Macy’s in Union Square, San Francisco, now to be worn indoors only as per Ursi’s instructions, wore shorts for the first time on this tour on a beautiful warm day and sadly ran out of my last packet of chai latte’s bought from Aldi in Australia. They don’t do chai latte’s here. Will make do.

After a leisurely breakfast of water and an orange for me and a small (and I mean small) piece of bread and an orange for Ursi; consumed over discussions on topical world events as we both surfed the net for news, we slowly made our way to the meeting point of a free walking tour. Rafa, short for Raphael, our guide took us on a 2.5 hour walking tour through the old town, talking about his beloved Cordoba’s past and present, the monuments, culture, customs and unfortunately the plight of the young people as unemployment is very high. According to him, this is forcing most young people to head north to other parts of Spain and some even to other European countries.

Given the approximation of where we are staying to the old town, we headed back to our to our apartment for lunch comprising of fresh baguette sandwiches made by Ursi (I am spoilt) with avocado, ham, cheese and lettuce. After more surfing of the net, Ursi on news and me on sport, we headed back to the old town to visit one of the highlights of Cordoba, the mosque/cathedral.

It is just stunning and spectacular; haven’t seen anything like it before and to think it came pretty close to being demolished centuries ago. Worth a read in Wikipedia. Took some photos which don’t do it justice so best go to Google images but ideally go and see it in person if you are ever in this part of the world. Ended the day perfectly by having a late dinner (don’t do late dinner’s voluntarily) at this cutest of restaurants. It was worth it, as it is not only cute but serves high quality cuisine at a vey reasonable price.