We arrived in Sevilla at the beginning of siesta and it showed. The airport was a ghost town and there were no passport officers around to stamp my passport. In our search for our rental car company, we discovered that [1] the company doesn’t have office space in the airport and [2] we had to call them to pick us up at the meeting point in the arrivals lobby. Lovely. After waiting for about 15-20m someone finally showed up to take us to our mode of transport for the next week: a lovely golden Opel Corsa.
image from www.opel.es
So we headed out in the 90F+ heat to Cordoba, a drive in which we learned that most large transport trucks could out run and out power our little Corsa. Oh well, who’s in a hurry to climb that big hill?
The one thing about Spain that drove us crazy was lack of PROMINENT + VISIBLE street signs. It took us, no joke, about 45m-1h to find our hotel. S did a good job maneuvering the narrow streets – so narrow you had to question if it really was a street that allowed cars. Thanks to very broken Spanish and a bartender, we managed to find our hotel. It was hard to miss as the Mezquita was literally across the street.
After we got settled, we walked around the Jewish Quarter as best we could in the stifling heat – the chocolate ice cream cone helped ease my discomfort and we started on our tapas hop. Of all the tapas we had, I think that patatas bravas were my fave – roasted/fried potatoes with a creamy, spicy, tomato sauce. The jamon and manchego cheese were just as fabulous. Unfortunately, we were too full to check out a real neat salon de te we stumbled upon.
Per Rick Steves’ guide to Spain, the Mezquita opens 8a and is free until 10a, so wanting to beat the crowds and get started on our drive to Granada, we got into the Mezquita just before 10a. “Wow!” was my first reaction when I first stepped inside. I’ll spare you the history, but basically this is a mosque with a cathedral inside and it’s probably one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen. The double arches, the intricate ceilings, the marble floor tiles that are the same size as prayer rugs. Unfortunately, our pictures don’t do this place justice and words just can’t describe, so I think you should check it out for yourself! (Oh, and props to Cordoba’s history as being a city where Jews, Christians and Muslim lived together – peacefully.)
details, details in the mezquita
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