The day had to be managed, the prospect of the predicted 37 degrees meant one thing for sure, Reg wasn’t turning a wheel today and will remain in the shade anchored to a lamppost, even if he did look a little sad.
Top of my list, and reason for coming here is the Mezquita – Catedral de Córdoba, and I had bought my ticket a few days previously. It opens at 10am and as usual I was one of the first in. Something exceeding your expectations is as good as it gets, and that’s exactly what it did! I had in my head that there would be about a hundred of those arches and knowing fine well that most photos on the internet are colour enhanced for a more dramatic effect, I suppose I was prepared to be a little disappointed.
Each of the double arches sits on 856 granite and marble pillars, so it doesn’t take a genius to work out that my expectation of 100 was a a little on the conservative side! It was one of those “Wow” moments and a little bit emotional again for some crazy reason. I don’t think the colours need software to enhance them, all the photos you see in this are straight from my phone without any alteration at all. As one arch looks pretty much like another I’ve included a two minute video to give you some idea of the scale, don’t feel you need to watch it though.
The place made me consider the power and money behind religion throughout the centuries, quite scary in some ways!
My plan was to get back to the hotel by one o’clock as that’s when the temperature was going to rise to the mid 30s, so took the chance to look at other parts of the old quarter whilst downing one and a half litres of water and staying in the shade as much as possible.
Close to my hotel entrance there is a cafe bar, no swing doors, no piano and barely a swarthy man in sight, but what did catch my eye was somebody tucking into a proper full English with two fried eggs. Now I’ve always said you can’t beat an egg, but apparently I’m wrong? So once I found out they were serving such delights until 4pm it got close to the top of my ‘To Do’ list for the day, and it’s only 50 paces from my air conditioned hotel!
At the risk of offending someone, here is today’s topic for discussion. As you know I am neither Muslim nor Christian but I remember two distinct feelings when Mrs Dancer and I visited. One was the sheer awe of seeing something so beautiful, and the second (irrational?) feeling was being offended that the Christians had vandalised the mosque by building their church in the middle of it. I guess the victors get to choose how to honour the defeated after the war. At least they didn’t destroy it…
Discuss! 🤔
True!
Those arches went on forever – wow amazing. I even watched the video.
The old quarter looked really nice – good place to sit and people watch – shame no swarthy men today 😜
I hope Reg forgives you for leaving him today and you enjoyed your all day 🍳. Enjoy the heat – won’t be at all like that when you get home 😬x
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Wow, just wow. What an amazing place. So beautiful, and not full of tourists following a red umbrella ( or at least you walked the other way) . You have been privileged to see some magnificent sights.
Now I know you would want to share them , but you are sharing them with us, and we are happy to share them with you.
Are you releasing Reg from his chains in the morning? Where to tomorrow?
I’m here for another day so will see how hot it gets. Heading east on Tuesday 👍🏼
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It was great to see it all again. We were equally wowed when we visited a couple of years ago. We were also lucky enough to watch a family of otters from the bridge, looking down onto the nearby river and whilst watching also saw a kingfisher. It’s an amazing place. Enjoy the rest of your time there x
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