5C's Que Pasa

The bus station in Cordoba.

The bus trip was excellent as we had the front row seats which I had booked long ago at no charge along with our extremely cheap bus fare. We had to load our luggage ourselves under the belly of the bus.  I thought it strange that for an almost three hour trip there was no toilet onboard yet there was wifi.  Great way to see the countryside.  Check in at our Airbnb was not until 4PM but our apartment was ready so we were inside by 1:00PM.  Once unpacked we headed out to find some wine and check out the area.  Once again we are in the perfect location within walking distance to most places.  By the way, I started booking our accommodations last August.  The good ones fill up fast.  My requirements are no smoking ( which can be an issue as so many Europeans smoke ), A/C in the bedroom as well as a window that opens,  good wifi and an elevator.  We had no elevator in Madrid ( lots of stairs ) nor in Toledo ( much fewer stairs ) and I think there may be one more location down the road with no elevator. The link to our accommodation here in Granada can be found by clicking here.

Lovely countryside. We ended up making two other stops to pick up folks so we saw some smaller towns.

I don’t always know that these photos are being taken. Anyway, on the bus just before arriving, I was checking the list.

The view out of out patio window looking toward the Plaza Nueva , one of the main spots in the historic district.

There is a bit of a heat wave happening here.  It is hot at 33C/91.4 F, talk about being freezing cold earlier in the trip and now being so warm.  Good thing that I packed for both conditions. We found the wine at the oddest place but the price was right.  We walked a bit and found a place for lunch. We have yet to find a restaurant here in Granada that  has A/C 😕

Colin’s meal looked great, a salmon sandwich.

I wanted a lighter meal and ordered the grilled cheese and never expected this.  Those wee black things tasted too fishy for me but the sweet jam mix went will with the brie.

After lunch we came back to the apartment.  I was going to write my last blog post but I simply had to lay down and have a nap. Colin went out to explore the lay of the land. We had a free 6PM tour of the Albaicin district.  The tour description is as follows: The Albaicín quarter is a synthesis of all the cultures that have lived in its streets, squares, and houses. From Muslims, Christians and Jews, to artists from the Romantic era and writers who found inspiration in the narrow streets of this quarter, everyone who’s lived here has added their spice to the unique charm of the Albaicín. Here, Moorish houses, the traditional gardens of the ‘carmenes’, old mosques converted into churches and arab palaces coexist with artisan workshops, traditional bars, family businesses and magical viewpoints. We were both looking forward to this 2.5 hour tour despite the fact that we had to be out the door for a major tour at 7:30AM the next morning.  The heat was still very intense and as we started the climb which would get more difficult, I realized that I would not be able to complete the tour.  Best to pack it in right at the beginning while I could still find my way back to our Airbnb.  So Colin continued and I went back to rest and to work on that last post.  Fortunately we will all be able to enjoy his photos. However I missed hearing the history of it all.

Street scene in our area.

This building is not brick, the facade had been painted onto the plain stucco or whatever they use.

As I left the tour to return to the apartment I came across this fountain. Each of the three figures are spewing good drinking water coming out of their mouths.  There are many such fountains here in Granada and we saw a few in Toledo and Cordoba.

Colin told me that the tour pretty much started right away going uphill about 2.1km/1.3 miles and that I would not have been able to do it.  Had I been feeling 100% and the temps were lower, I likely would have done it, but it was mostly steps up and then down and then up again.  My hips don’t like stairs.  Looks like I made the right call.

The homes in the Albaicin are painted white and are along narrow stone paved streets.

The tour group.

These homes have become very valuable and most are worth over 500.000 thousand Euro.

Many are in disrepair and need attention.

Colin’s just before sunset taken at the end of the walking tour at the Mirador de San Nicolas.  The Alhambra at its best.

The following is a 40 second video ( that took us 3 hours to upload to  You Tube ) of a few fellows enjoying local music up at the viewpoint.

We are at almost the halfway point of our trip and the days are beginning to blur together.  So much to see and so little time.  We did a free walking tour on Monday, June 2nd.  It was interesting and we saw some things that we would have missed on our own.  However the tour guide had poor English and we all spent most of the time trying t0 figure out what she was trying to say.

Before I show you the photos I just wanted to share a few general thoughts that we have been discussing.  There are no bugs here in Spain, no ants, no flies and no mosquitoes.  It’s a pleasant change.  Both Toledo and Cordoba are very clean, no litter in the street and no dog mess.  There is no honking of horns, people just sit quietly while the car in front offloads groceries or whatever.  I mentioned before that the women tend to dress up however they are also smoking much more than the men.

After our tour we had lunch and then later went to visit the Mezquita – Cathedral.  It is the only Muslin and Catholic church combined in the world.  I am not going to share all of the history with you but please click here to get a good idea about the que pasa of it all.  It truly is an amazing place starting in the mid 6th century with the Christian period and the Muslin period began in the 9th century until mid 12th century when the Christians took control again, promising not to destroy the Islamic structure but to combine the two.  It was declared a ‘World Heritage Site’ by UNESCO.

We already had a full day and needed to pack and have dinner, so we chose to simply walk through this amazing place without an audio guide. We still stayed for a few hours.  I have to admit that I have not been feeling well this past week. I had a two day cold on the cruise ship which came back in Madrid and I have had trouble shaking it. It has moved into my chest and I got some medication from a pharmacy which has helped. I just don’t have much energy but I am pushing myself to see the major sites.  For the first time in my life my appetite has disappeared. I am hoping that I will be better in a few days. Colin has started going out exploring on his own, letting me rest for an hour here and there and I am happy that he is doing that as I don’t feel guilty for holding him back. I am sorry that I don’t have the energy to add more to each of the photos but they still portray the city of Cordoba.

Our tapa lunch was lettuce bibs but really more like small romaine hearts with smoked salmon on top, a cold baby potato dish and a piece of Spanish omelet.

Puerto del Puente and the Puente Romano.

Yet another gate to enter the ancient city.

The Mosque – Cathedral on the left.

I love this shot, the Islamic arches just go on and on.

The previous photo was a Muslim influence while this is obviously Christian.

I was starting to fade here. So much more to see. The Cathedral portion was built in the middle of the Mosque.  It is a living building, one that has been transformed by men from different cultures and religions throughout history. The Mosque – Cathedral of Cordoba is truly a unique beauty, a work of art and open for all to see.

This gold covered monstrance is not as elaborate as the one in the Toledo Catedral but still most impressive.

So much detail.

Once we left the Mosque – Cathedral we picked up something to eat later in the apartment, showered, packed and were ready to head off to our next destination in the morning.  For our train and bus trips in the next few weeks, I booked as far in advance as I could and got some great deals for seniors.  For instance we are taking the bus to our next destination which is almost 3 hours aways and I am only paying 10.6 Euro each.

Tags: Tres Amigos RV Park

We had to take the train back to Madrid and make a change there. That involved a very long walk that resulted in us having to put our bags through the x-ray machine for the second time in an hour.  Then we almost got lost but finally figured it out.  Our destination Cordoba never came up on the departure board so I went in search of someone who might help, turns out the trains final destination was Seville and that was what we had to look for to find our boarding platform number.  We had to go up one level to catch our train but in the end, after check in, we had to take an escalator down again to the same platform to actually board our train.  Hopefully this makes sense to someone, certainly not me.  It was a pleasant 1 & 3/4 of an hour ride.  The only glitch was that when they came around and offered coffee, juice or water, we had to end up paying 4.2 Euro for our coffees.  We didn’t want them for that price but they were already on our tables so we paid.  We were in first class on this leg of the journey and last year when we traveled first class in Italy, coffee, etc. was included.

Lucky her, she didn’t have to walk. I wish someone would pull me around.

Here is the link our Airbnb which has front patio doors that open to the street and a lovely patio in the back.  We are within ten minutes walk to everything we would want to see in the historic area.  The host also provides a full breakfast from bread, muffins, donuts, tomatoes, oranges, bananas, apples, apricots, cereal, milk, two varieties of yogurt and many teas and coffees.  We were overwhelmed with the abundance of food.  It is also the first time I have slept on monogramed sheets and pillow cases and had monogramed towels as well.

The address here is Calle San Fernando, 76.

Once again the city was filled to capacity.  June 1st, the day we arrived was the last day of an annual  one week event called Feria.  You can read a bit about it here. Interesting how we hit upon full cities in Madrid, Toledo and now here in Cordoba due to some major event.  Many folks, especially the ladies dress up for the celebration.  It was fun to watch everyone.

Once we were semi organized we went out looking for wine (we usually buy water also but the water in Spain is good to drink ) and a place to have lunch.  I can’t imagine walking around dressed like that as I was melting with as few clothes on as possible.  Temperatures here are soaring, we were at 34C/93.2F early afternoon and it got a bitter warmer yet.

The Romans founded Cordoba and a 1000 years ago it was the largest city in the world and controlled the Iberian Peninsula. Today the population is around 325,000.  Each city we have been in has its own unique energy including dealing with traffic, restaurants;  actually everything.  Here everything is very laid back.  It took us about five minutes to find a place with a menu that appealed to us.

We each had a half serving of the house salad which was a full meal in itself.  Among other things it contained, asparagus, pieces of apple, beets, carrots, corn, tomatoes and wonderful fresh lettuce.  It was topped off with a generous amount of tuna.  Wonderful salad and very filling.

Thinking that the half salad would be a typical small lettuce salad we ordered a plate of lightly fried eggplant to share which came with a Spanish tomato & bread sauce.  We were unable to eat it all.  Great meal.  Each city has its own specialties.

Here are some street scenes as we walked along.

We were to have visited the Mezquita – Catedral in the afternoon but is closed early because of the Feria.  I have since found out that this Feria is not just about rides for the children to enjoy but incorporates many cultural activities, such as folkloric events including flamenco dancing.

One thing we noticed was that the ladies and young women dressed up.  The guys not so much but they did look presentable.

I wasn’t hungry for dinner but Colin was, so we found a small place in which to eat.  The wine is always good with an average price of 2;5 Euro per glass/copa.

Smoked salmon and creme cheese on a bagel for Colin.

As I was not hungry but knew that I should eat something I ordered the tempura vegetables.  Both our meals were great and of course Colin had to help me finish my veggies.

We then went for a stroll along the banks of the  Guadalquivir river. We also walked along the Roman bridge and caught the lights lighting up the Mezquite – Catedral. A wonderful end to our first day here in Cordoba, despite the heat.

This doesn’t fit in with this post but I wanted to show you how much things have changed for me in the past year.  In addition to the laptop we are traveling with the iPhone which I now know how to use ( more or less ) and the iPad which we are both using to check emails and the internet and me for reading.  So happy we added the iPad.

I was writing the last post in Toledo.

Tags: travel

Today was our day to visit this famous Cathedral, the greatest Gothic structure in Europe.  We have been observing it day and night since we arrived.  It is an amazing structure. yet it is showing decay in some areas on the exterior. There is so much history to this famous Catedral ( Spanish spelling ) in which the first stone was laid in 1226.  It was erected on the site of a previous mosque.  It is so large that it can seat 30,000.  It cost us 9 Euro each to enter which included an audio guide.  We ended up being there for over 2.5 hours.  It is a fascinating place, mostly due to the history of it all.  A small inner core of the church was cordoned off today as they were preparing for a major celebratory mass this evening  re the Castile – La Mancha day.  That explains  the extra people and children wandering the town.

There is so much history that we took in that I can’t possibly remember it all to share with you.  If you are seriously interested I suggest that you start with Wikipedia.  It is a condensed version but well written and helps you to understand the immense history behind this amazing Cathedral.

Parts of the church were shut off the public because of a special, so we were not able to get up close to everything.  Certainly lots of gold inside.

Virgin del Tesoro from the XIII century, covered  in silver.  It is said to be older than the Cathedral itself.

The Disrobing of Christ painting begun in the summer of 1577 by El Greco and completed in the spring of 1579 for the High Altar of the sacristy of the Cathedral of Toledo, where it still hangs.

This is said to be the actual stone that the Virgin Mary’s foot touched when she descended from heaven for a short period of time.  People are allowed to touch it and so I did.  I have since been unable to verify this information online.  Mind you I did not spend a great deal of time looking.  There was another story on the audio tape that mentioned that The Virgin Mary herself was born because of  an immaculate conception between her parents.  Again I could not verify this.

This amazing work of art is made of solid gold. It originally belonged to Queen Isabella who reigned as Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504. The monstrance was bought by Toledo in 1505.

So much history in just this one piece. First of all this monstrance is literally brilliant, not only in looks but in its creation.  But to think that the gold I was looking at came from the New World and was brought  back to Spain by Christopher Columbus was beyond  amazing and here I was looking at it here in Toledo.

Our brains were tired and we needed energy so we walked up and down until we found a wee reatuarut with a view of the Catedral. Perfect.  We settled on the menu del dia which in this case was was an excellent deal @ 9.5 Euro each.  We both had a glass of wine, bread and here in my case the avocado salad.  I certainly never expected this wonderful creation of diced tomatoes, spring onion which turned out to be red onion, avocado and tuna loins covered with sesame seeds.

Colin had falafel served with a honey mustard dressing. We both were more than impressed with our meal.

The menu del dia also includes a postre/dessert. I had the carrot cake while Colin chose the cheesecake which came with a fresh raspberry topping.  Definitely the best dessert ever.

I was too full for dinner and Colin ended up getting a takeout vegetarian dish from the restaurant across the road.  It was then time to pack as we moved to yet another destination this morning.  More on that next post.

Our next stop on this grand adventure was Toledo, Spain.   It is not pronounced like Toledo,Ohio, the e is an eh, something like To Leh Do.  The quick 32 minute ride on a luxurious train was much faster than our trek from the apartment to the Atocha Renfe station of which a few photos were in the last post.

We had just enough time to spare to enjoy a coffee.

Baggage needs to be xrayed prior to boarding.

As we disbarked it felt like we were in a different world. Charming and fairytale like. The Toledo train station is a work of art. Toledo is built on seven hills surrounded by the Tagus River and surrounded by medieval walls. It is a historic city that developed under the influence of multiple cultures and religions turning it into a unique city. It is a labyrinth of narrow streets.  In some places the stone walls have been carved out so that the vehicles side mirrors don’t scrape. At some intersections a post comes out of the ground preventing the car from going forward until the driver gets out and pushes a button that puts another post up so opposing traffic has to stop. It is a different world full of labyrinth streets used mostly by tourists.  Population about 80,000.  There a few cars and even less parking. A total contrast to Madrid. This UNESCO world heritage site is one of tranquility.

Toledo train station.

It is even more impressive in person.

There is much to see from dungeons dating back to the early 1400’s which were used for torture, to museums displaying instruments of torture, catapults and siege machines. Other museums offer displays of armour worn by the Templar knights participating in battles against the muslims.  There is even a museum devoted to the objects of magic and witchcraft in the Mediterranean and Central Europe from the XVI century to the beginning of the XX century. We saw none of this. We came to walk the up and down cobblestone streets and to see the greatest gothic structure in Europe. All through our walking tour of Madrid references were made over and over to the history of Toledo and the power of its great cathedral.

You can check out our Airbnb by clicking here and then you can click on the photos at the top right. This is a very special place in a Toledano Palace of the XVI century.  It is in a perfect location, located to all that we want to see provided we are happy to meander the cobblestone streets as they go down one hill and up another.  In fact there are few outdoor patio restaurants due to lack of level space.

Our front door is to the left at the bottom of the photo.

Check in was at 3PM and we were there at 11AM so we dumped our luggage  at the apartment as it was being cleaned and started checking out the town. We discovered that for only 6 Euro each, we could take a small tourist train around the perimeter of the city giving us an overall view of the area.

The tall spire beings to the Catedral.

It was just 2PM when our tour was complete and we were hungry. We finally found something just off of the main Plaza de Zocodover that was not fast food. Colin thought that the fish & chips on the menu might be a pleasant change.  That was the fish and those tiny pieces were the chips.  At least he enjoyed the fish.

My brie with smoked salmon blew me away.  The base was a thin piece of toasted bread literally covered with at least 1/4 inch of Brie. Then a thin layer of very nice smoked salmon topped with even more Brie. I was in Brie heaven.  It also came with those tiny paper thin pieces of ‘fries’, all for the same price as Colin’s meal. 9 Euro each and the wine was only 2 Euro for an extremely generous pour.  Fabulous lunch.

So many narrow alleys. The piece of cloth along the top is to help create shade.  We are having unusually high temps here at 33C/90F and the shade was welcomed.

So many lovely lanterns.

Toledo is not only famous as the former Imperial Capital of Spain, but also the center of Damascene Steel making in Spain, which the Spanish inherited from the former Arab rulers during the medieval Period.  Almost every other shop is selling knives or daggers and sometimes medieval armor. The other main tourist product is Marzipan which apparently the local nuns invented.

A very effective stopping mechanism.

And off he goes, once it is clear to proceed.

There are many gates to the city.

The inside part of the famous Gate of Basgra Gate.

The outside of  the gate is of Moorish origin, but the main part was built in 1559 by Alonso de Covarrubias. It carries the coat of arms of the emperor Charles V. It superseded the Puerta Bisagra Antigua as the main entrance to the city.

We did get out to wonderful vegetarian restaurant for dinner that was literally across the street from our apartment.  It had been along day and we wanted something simple. We arrived at 10PM ant others kept coming in until about 11PM.

We ordered a simple veggie burger which turned out to be the best we have had in our 37 years.  The soy burger was handmade and slathered  in onion and mushrooms.  It came with a very lovely salad and coin cut fries which did not taste like deep fired.  An excellent meal.

I was planning to do today and tomorrow in one post but there is too much to share so two posts it is.  We are so happy that we stopped here.