Spain! Back to Barca and Madrid, and the end of the trip.

Last few days (12-14 of March):

Due to the wallet-stealing adventure, I was heading back to Barcelona to fetch it, while the rest of the crew was heading to Madrid, where I would rejoin them in the evening.

On the train, I bought lunch, as I'd opted not to buy anything in the station. Prices on the train are totally reasonable, unlike the station or the German trains' cafe cars.

• Coffee - 1.80 for a shot of espresso (standard price around Spain) and 
• Bocadillo (sandwich on an ovular roll with crunchy bread) for 4.60. The sandwich was "jamon y camembert", and was amazingly delicious. 

The views during the train ride really emphasized how the region as a whole had been really hit by the rains. Rivers that were probably twice their normal width, fields submerged. 

There was also a part of the scenery that bore a strong resemblance to the Arizona desert, Sedona/Grand-Canyon-esque. I have no idea what the name of the place was. Somewhere between the stop Zaragoza Delicias and the previous one. Looking around the interwebs, it might've been Soria (based on this pic). 

Approaching Barcelona, I received another phone call from the (rather exasperated) police officer awho was not the one I emailed, but the one at the station I filed the report at (I never did get his name). After a few tries (call dropped, poor reception here and there), it was made clear that they'd moved the wallet to the police station inside of Barcelona-Sants train station (where my long-distance train was pulling in), so that I would not have to actually venture into Barcelona itself. 

I starting to think they were a bit worried about me being robbed again, what with keeping me from venturing into Barcelona. Then, having a pair of officer meet me outside the train, and bring me to the police who actually had my wallet.  One of the last set spoke some English. I was taken to a trailer behind the station, clearly a temporary police area -- surrounded by construction odds and ends -- and sat in the sunlight while waiting for them to fill out the report. 

I'd over-estimated the value of my wallet by the cost of replacing my IDs, which I had to explain and which had to then get translated into Spanish or Catalan (it looked like Spanish to me) for the report. I understood the gist of it, which surprised the policewoman (who spoke English) and I said well, I'd had 4 years of Latin, so I could understand some of what was written from that.  

They were a bit confused as to whether I was German or American, and I had to explain that I'm American (showing my passport) and living in Germany (pointing to the residency permit (Aufenthaltstitel) which had been in my wallet). I was asked something, to which I responded that I preferred living in Europe, and when asked if it was the weather (haha no), I said something which in retrospect is kind of depressing. I'd said that there are things I am afraid of in the states that I'm not afraid of in Europe (also kind of funny, really, as I was sitting there saying this to the cops who were returning my had-been-stolen wallet to me). 

I then had an unplanned 2 or so hours to kill, so I went for a walk (20ºC and sunny, unlike my previous time in Barcelona) and found a place called "Sants-Bier". Maybe "bier" is Catalan for "beer" -- I hadn't really noticed it being odd, as "Bier" is the correct word in German. I went in and ordered a chicken salad and a local beer (Estrella Damm), which was as refreshing and weather-appropriate as I'd hoped.  I spent some time reading the German book I'd brought along.  Part of my choice of this place was that everything on the menu was in all three languages. 

Barcelona functions primarily in Catalan, secondarily in Spanish, and tertiarily in English. I was at a distinct disadvantage with my 20 or so words of Spanish, especially as I never really formally learned it, and I feel like I have one "niche" in my brain for foreign language(s). So I ended up asking the lady at the train for "Cocha vier" and then apologized (in English) for mixing languages, and she answered me in English (thankfully) ["Cocha" is Spanish for Train car and "vier" is "four" in German].  I learned from this and the second time quickly counted to seven under my breath in Spanish (hurray for Sesame Street, from which I learned how to count to about 15 in Spanish and which for some reason has stuck in my head since then) before reaching the Train lady and used the correct language for the number as well. 

MADRID! (Again). 

I got into Madrid evening-ish, giving me one full day with two of the three others (the last flying back to Alaska on a super-early-flight the day before the rest of us left).

We stayed in a pretty swank apartment-hotel-thing. Two beds per bedroom, two bedrooms, and two floors (one full bathroom per floor). Being on the top floor, we even had skylights. The staircase was metal, making a pleasant (albeit a bit loud) musical sound when one walked up and down it.

The street where we lived

cool bedroom + skylight

We opted to try out one of these "city tours" buses, which has tour-info in something like 12 languages, you plug in some headphones and listen. Which, by the way, was not particularly easy to follow. And the lady talking was obsessed with mentioning names of Architects and commenting stuffily on how such-and-such area now had "young people" and therefore recently a bunch of coffee shops and clothing stores "catering to young people" had popped up.

Summary of thoughts on the hop-on-hop-off tourbus thing:  Not really worth it, unless you're super duper lazy about navigating the local transit system.  On top of that, you really can't see anything at all unless you're on the top part of the bus, which was open to the elements (it was technically ~8C/46F, but with a super duper frigid wind constantly blowing, and overcast skies --- pretty miserable weather to be atop a bus). 

One of the few landmarks I could figure out based on the recorded tour's descriptions:

the Metropolis

Here's another thing on the tour, about which the others caught more of what was said that I did. Something about two of the arches being for horses, first roman-style arch since roman times (beating out France's Arc du Triumph by several years):

hah, france! Older than your arch. 

We get out at the Temple of Debod, which is more than 2000 years old and Egyptian. Nope, Egyptians didn't colonize Madrid --- this was a gift to Spain based on their help figuring out how to move/recover some of the temples that were flooded out by building a big dam. [You can see a virtual tour here].

Egyptian temple, in Madrid

It made me a bit sad that it before said dam, this particular temple still had a lot of its inner paint intact, which the nine or eleven months of flooding per year (post-dam) completely washed away. Here's a carving:

Hieroglyphics, listing the titles of Adikhalamani (200 BC)

More walking, and we came across the monument to Cervantes (yes, that is Don Quixote in front):

off to tilt some windmills

There was also a palace-thing, which had a nice small garden out front and two walks with statues lining them, which had originally been intended to top said palace, however, they were too heavy. The statues had weird names, like this guy:

VVAMBA

We had had accidentally great timing, and saw something that could've been the changing of the guard. It was military and official looking.

and horses, even

The audioguide also omitted a lot of cool-looking stuff. Nothing was said about this awesome building, with two chariot-statues atop:

Dinner was at a Thai place around the corner that got good reviews on something or other. I had tea, which came in a cute tiny metal teapot:

The waiter's Spanish and English were both incredibly thickly accented, which made figuring things out a bit of a challenge.


At some point during our walking/wandering, we came across this awesome living wall:

(it's next to one of the museums)

Parting thoughts:

• This was a really big, rather long trip. Architecturally, it might've made sense to start (post-Barcelona) at Cordoba and then work up to and finish with the Alhambra.  It's like any kind of museum burnout. You can only look at pretty ruins/arches/temples/whatever so many times before they stop being quite as awesome, and the Alhambra is a pretty hard act to follow. 

• Spain is the land of ham and cheese and wine. I would love to plan a trip back (probably along the north) to traipse around eating delicious cured meats, soft cheeses, and red wines.

mmmmm meat (in a normal grocery store)

• I was asked by Kricket in the comments about how feasible all of this would be if you speak no Spanish and have no Spanish speaker with you. I think it's totally feasible, depending on your tolerance for discomfort and/or ability to plan ahead. 

         Things having a Spanish speaker around really help with:

• not sticking out (quite so much) as a tourist. 
• asking directions when lost 
• translating things like menu items, talking to restaurant staff
• interfacing with people who run tiny hotel-apartment things (who do not always speak much/any English) 

Due to the last one, we (when we had internet) could make the whole planning-our-lodgings-on-the-fly thing work. If you plan more ahead than we did, I'm sure you can find similarly awesome places (or even the same ones) and make it work just fine.

Re: menu items and restaurant staff.  Two phrases: "Para mi..." (for me, i.e. "I'll have the...") and "La cuenta?" (the check/bill, at a restaurant) will get you really far.

Re: directions -- well. Get a map. And a compass? And/or a smartphone with some affordable international wifi, and you can googlemap it instead.

I found signage in general to be very good, and all of the relevant metro systems to be really easily navigable. Also, both Madrid and Barcelona had really great information booths at the main train stations, staffed by people who spoke English and could help out with route planning and such.

Also, in case you didn't know, the Madrid airport has an amazing view (referring to the mountains, kind of ruined by my 'meh' phone picture): 

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.