Today we left Seville behind and got the train to Cordoba. The station at Seville is a thoroughly modern affair, clean and efficient. By the time we reached the train we’d been through an airport like security check and had our tickets checked twice. The latter seemed very much like a job creation scheme to me. The train too was modern, clean and fast with bags of room – so the complete antithesis of anything in the UK.
On arrival in Cordoba we walked through a tree lined green space that went right down to the Alkezar. Unlike yesterday this one was a small affair with none of the geometric patterns that fascinated me so but it did have some nice mosaics on the wall in a church which looked as if they’d been on the floor somewhere at some point.
Whenever you mention Cordoba to anyone that has been there they always say “oh that’s the place with the church inside a mosque… or is it mosque inside a church?!” For the record it’s a church inside a mosque and we went there next. The mosque was another thing of beauty. A simple, clean open space with repeated pillars joined by red and white striped tops. And there, right in the centre of this beautiful mosque, was a garish Christian church. It was incredibly ornate with all the bling that you associate with the Catholic church. It was jarring to see it where it was but fascinating at the same time.
Our next stop was the Roman bridge. This seemed to be a bit of a con to me as the deck of the bridge was definitely not Roman in fact it looked very twentieth century to me. Peering over the edge and looking down what I saw could have been Roman but who knows?
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the beautifully maintained pedestrian streets. There is a very simple palette of colours used both here and in Seville consisting of white, terracotta, sandstone and blue. It all looks very appealing, especially in the warm January sun.
The temperature has been just right for us over the last few days getting to about 20 degrees. If I find it pleasant in January that tells me that it is going to be pretty hot in the summer. And while I am happy to go around in a jumper you can tell the locals as they are the ones in the bobble hats and scarves!
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