Buenos dias amigos!

If you are just checking in, start with Part I of Our Trip Down South- Sevilla.

After two nights in Seville, we hop, skipped, and jumped our way over to Cordoba, a small town worth seeing, even just for a day.  We didn’t realize when we planned (really, my mom didn’t realize when she planned) that most things are closed in Cordoba on Mondays, which happened to be the one day we spent there, but we made it work and I think we got a ton done in just a few short hours in the city.

My first impression of Cordoba was similar to that of Sevilla- a small town, with narrow, cobblestone streets that are lined with bitter orange trees.

The main attraction in Cordoba is the Mezquita, which is a huge, huge, huge mosque. It’s large enough to fit 20,000 people at a time!  The site was originally built by the Visigothsas the Catholic Basilicaof Saint Vincent of Lerins.  When Muslims conquered Spain in 711, the church was first divided into Muslim and Christian halves. This sharing arrangement of the site lasted until 784.

When my parents said we were going to a mosque, I never pictured that it would be anything like it was, from the grand pillars throughout, to the preserved artifacts and sculptures.

Actually, backing up a bit…Before going to the Mezquita, we went to the Casa de Sepharad museum in Cordoba.  I wasn’t feeling well that day, but the museum was still interesting, especially the tour we did there where we learned more about the Spanish Inquisition…something that I really didn’t know much about before this trip.  I don’t have any pictures to share from there, so moving along….

After the Mezquita, I wanted to take a nap to see if it would help me feel better.  It did and I woke up to my parents returning to the hotel room from their adventures.  Within minutes, we were out the door for dinner, which ended up being a delicious mix of middle eastern cuisine (Tajine, kebap, hummus, etc).  We finished it all and I left dinner super, super stuffed.

We ended the night with a walk through the quiet streets and some ice cream.  Then it was bed time before a morning train ride to our last city- Granada!  My parents actually went out to see the palace that morning, but I wasn’t getting up before the sun.  Nope.

Up next- Granada (my favorite!)