CORDOBA 17th May 



A beautiful city, but of course we spent time in the older part, so we have a slightly more glamorous view of living there, had a wander around the streets on the Thursday evening just to help orient ourselves, still managed to go off the beaten track a bit when I went out walking by myself in the morning. Narrow cobblestone, stone or granite paved streets, narrow lanes some only enough room for a car and a person squashed up against the wall, but fun to explore ! A recycled Roman column is a good buffer against traffic at the corner of a building




Cordoba is well known for its Patios and flower displays, unfortunately I didn’t get to the main Photography sight for this but nonetheless found some very pretty displays 





I also paid a visit to the Alcazar of Cordoba, you can get in free if you are over 65 - Yes! But I didn’t have my passport so paid the 5 Euro rather than go back and collect it. It was the old palace, climbed up into the tower but was keen to get out into the gardens






Managed to spot this little fellow whilst walking around, Lovely to see the gardens - but a pity about all the tourists! 
Of course the main tourist attraction of Cordoba is the Mezquita Cathedral. That which was once a mosque is now a cathedral . I’m glad we had a guide who was able to tell us about the different sections, styles and additions. It is huge and can apparently hold 40 thousand people.
The original part of the Mosque was also made with recycled Roman colours and a mixture of brick and sandstone to make the double arches. Someone who wanted to be a Caliph added more fancier bits - decorative detail - added domes to let in more light further back in the building.
Someone else - or maybe it was the potential Caliph added a Byzantine bit 
There was further additions - less fancy by somebody who was acting as Regent and then Isabella and Ferdinand expelled all the Moors in 1492 and the Roman Catholic Church started making it look all rather tacky, by adding paintings carvings, gold as much as possible. Obviously I really only comprehended the gist of it all , but that was enough to make sense of the mixture of styles and religions. It is still a practicing cathedral to this day this Christian part is the main altar.

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