Spain!Córdoba

Much like my actual experience of Córdoba, my writing of this is a bit colored by burnout, with the trip having been so busy and full, bursting from the seams in our grand 6 hr Alhambra visit.

A fore-note about Córdoba. Here we saw people selling things in the street, which included socks, of the 3-pack you would buy in a drugstore variety. Also, when asked what language we spoke, the first and second guesses/offers were German and French one time.

Day 10:Bus trip from Granada to Cordoba.  

left: Mosque-Cathedral, right: shops and our hotel is up there a bit.

It was pouring rain again in the morning; we learned from the taxi driver that the previous night's rain was record-breaking for the region. There were two bus options, one at 11 and one at 12, both getting to Córdoba at the same time. We took the later option, and had churros con chocolate in the place across the street, passing the time with monopoly-the-card-game, which is roughly Rummy. 

The street we stayed on was the same street as the Mosque/Cathedral, which was amazingly convenient 

We stayed at a surprisingly fancy hotel, El Conquistador. It had some nice views:

Also, the hotel had Roman ruins on the ground floor. No, really. 

Here are my pics of them. They are viewed/accessed near a conference room (whose glass walls you see in the picture on the right): 

My camera finally bricked for good some time during our first day in Córdoba.  We wandered around and looked at the things which were free and low-key.

cool mosaic of the main sights of Córdoba

cool mosaic

This included some of the main sights of Córdoba; [the next three pictures are C's, due to camera malfunction].  The 'Roman Bridge', which really didn't seem old enough to be Roman (unless it'd been reinforced many times over the years), and the torrential-rain-induced high water:

[C's pic]

Wikipedia-commentary:

During its history, the bridge was restored and renovated several times (in particular in the 10th century), and now only the 14th and 15th arches (counting from the Puerta del Puente) are original. It was extensively restored in 2006.

The 'Roman Bridge' had a great view of the region of Córdoba that we were in. Closest on the right is, I believe the 'palace of the christian kings':

[C.'s pic]

We searched seriously for a place to eat that wasn't just a sort of cafeteria, and I saw a sign for a nice-looking place that advertised proudly that its kitchen was open all day. Fusion was it's name. A nice meal, and we had some confusingly-named desserts to choose from, with no descriptions. WE picked "the chocolate garden", which ended up being dry ice and milk/vanilla pudding-stuff with something like spiced cocoa-powder sprinkled atop and some fruits (and pop rock chunks?) as well:

[C.'s pic of crazy dessert]

Day 11:Mosque-Cathedral and Roman Ruins

Breakfast at the restaurant associated to a(nother) hotel. "Tortilla" (which is potatoes with a little bit of egg, smooched flatfish, kind of like a quiche), sandwiched inside an ovular roll. 

Then, the Mosque (Mezquita). Was originally a Visigothic church, then the Mosque, then a Church again. It was news to me that the visigoths had built much. My view of the (Visi)Goths (people, not emo teenagers) was just that they sacked Rome and then went on a rampage which crashed civilization and was what led to feudalism.

Here's a wikipedia snippet:

During their governance of the Kingdom of Hispania, the Visigoths built several churches. They also left many artifacts, which have been discovered in increasing numbers by archaeologists in recent times. Many Visigothic names and surnames are still in use in modern Spanish andPortuguese...the Visigoths were responsible for the only new cities founded in Western Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries (link)

Here's two views of the miniaret that was enclosed with a bigger (bell)tower after it was turned (back) into a church:

Trying our luck again, we rented the thorough, but confusing audio-guides -- there were no numbers labeled anywhere, you had to figure out the map they handed you and press the number at the right time (which was kind of annoying).

The Church-Mosque is huge and open, with some sub-areas labeled as 'museums'. One was for the time when the building was (just) a Visigothic-era Church. Here's a slab:

And some Visigothic-church-era (double) arches, with the related 'museum' underneath; I'm not sure which arches it was about (maybe these?), but the 'double' arching is supposed to (according to the audio guide somewhere) 'create an illusion of height' -- which seems a bit redundant, as they arches are actually already quite tall anyway:

711 was the Moorish conquest of Andalusia (Al-Andalus) and Córdoba. The gist I got from the audio guide was that the Moors came in, demolished things, bought the Church and made it a Mosque. Like the fortress in Málaga, they had some fun re-uses of old stuff: re-used marble slab (with mirror to show original inscription on the back (righthand picture)).

There were then two extensions in the next one to two hundred years. The design was clearly very open, bounded inside and outside by open arches. 

The post-Mosque era involved filling in whole walls of these and replacing them by fancy-peoples' little chapels, e.g.:

The Mihrab (center of prayer, also where the Caliph tended to sit) points south, but Mecca is actually southeast.  It makes a bit more sense why the Alhambra audio guide was emphatic about how the relevant things there pointed in the correct direction, and that several other Mihrabs in Andalusia pointed South instead of Southeast.

Mihrab

beautiful Mihrab ceiling

beautiful ceiling of area adjacent to Mihrab

One of the Mosque extensions caused the Mihrab to not be centered, so the columns had to be messed with.  You can see here some arches that got bricked over, I assumed this is what they meant. Also, this extension has arches with red strips that are just painted on. The floor is red (brick-like), not limestone or marble (which made it easier to spot what extension you were in):

There's been some scuffles between people who'd like to use it like a Mosque again and the Catholic church.  Here's the relevant Wikipedia piece. 

By the Mihrab was a treasury-room, which in the Mosque-era was where people stored prayer mats and other things. Post-Mosque-era, it seems to have become where you store all the crazy shiny stuff. There was a giant monstrance there. I couldn't remember the name 'monstrance' and kept referring to it as the (rather absurd) 'monstrosity':

Monstrosity

Nearby, on the wall, was this rather absurd painting ot Fernando, who gets to be called "the holy" (and be sainted) because he 're-conquered' Spain:

Around the corner from the 'treasury room', is the old clock mechanism: 

The Church-Mosque is a bit more Church-y in the middle. There was a sort of 'normal' altar area:

with an awesome choir loft that didn't show up well in my pictures. In said choir loft was this tin eagle podium:

Original book-ready-thing in the choir area (made of tin) from ~1237

Also in the choir loft were two facing organs, built centuries apart. Here was the older one, which had something unique or odd for the time of construction about it, something about how the open-mouths were uncommon: 

Around the corner from the 'high altar', I peeked into the royal chapel, which has been walled off:

walled-off Royal Chapel

Various people have been buried under the place.  Here's a pretty nifty burial stone for someone who was buried in 1614 (Those 4 years of Latin paid off :P ):

This would've been a postcard shot, if I had a better camera than my phone (ah, well):

We walked by later at night and I took a few pictures. I found this Christian-era addition kind of absurd:  

Bricked-up windows and painted-on saints

Mosque at night. I think the smaller 'tower' was also a(n older) miniaret

Midday-ish, we walked Roman temple-wards. This might've be about the time I realized that Córdoba is very rich in ruins. There's a sign by them saying something about how this (re-assembly of the temple) is part of a larger "Roman route" (in Córdoba) project. (Might have to do with this).

first view of temple site

For lunch, we stopped at some random place. In which we discovered that "Empanada" means "breaded". So, "empanada" plus the word for chicken (which was not "pollo") means something like the spanish version of chicken schnitzel. 

We wandered a bit and saw this famous enclosed courtyard:

They killed some people here during the inquisition.

We went to find some gelato (I had 'mojito' flavor, which was delicious) and then had a siesta. Adventures resumed around 6pm; we walked around for a while, up to the city's original wall (well, a piece of it) and on to the Roman Mausoleum, which one cannot see the inside of (sadly).

Mausoleum-thing on left; the thing on the right is also related

chunk of city wall, plus water in front of it

We also discovered where the actual "downtown" of Córdoba is, and I stumbled across a branch of my German bank,  which in the end turned out to not be useful. We also found a very lovely (and a bit pricey) tea and fancy-chocolate shop, in which we dallied (and two of us bought quite a lot of tea) until Spanish dinner-time.

All of our previous dinners were during the sort of "dead zone", time-wise, between 4:30 and 8pm. Restaurants seem to run 13:00-16:00 and then 20:00-24:00. We dallied long enough to eat at an actual restaurant instead of a cafe/cafeteria or the weird "Fusion" place that proudly stated that their kitchen was open all day (read: catering to tourists). 

It was an Italian place, ``La Tagliatelle". They house-made all kinds of crazy pastas, include many which were filled, and you could choose what would go on top (e.g. one choice was (Bacon, basil and garlic), another choice was something with pesto, e.g.). We all opted for some kind of filled pasta: mine was goat cheese and bacon. The others had gorgonzola & pear, pesto, and pumpkin. Everything was super awesome. Also, wayyyy too much food. In retrospect, I should've asked for a to-go box with all of our leftover pasta for lunch the next day.