Cordoba, Spain - 25 November

We had a leisurely beginning to our day and didn’t have to be on the bus until 8:30. Works for me! I arrived in the hotel restaurant before all of the pushy Spanish women and enjoyed two cups of their hot chocolate. I love European hot chocolate!!!!

We met our tour guide for the day, Mari Angeles, and had a very short drive to the old section of the city. We quickly made our way to the Cathedral of Cordoba, also known as the Mezquita. This is a photo of the bell tower. The Cathedral is built upon other cathedrals dating back to the Visigoths. It has five different sections built in different centuries in the Islamic-style of architecture but there is a continuity with the interior so it isn't too obvious with the exception of the center of the church where the alter is located. That section is all European rather than Islamic. It was a beautiful structure and I would love to show you an example but my pictures either came out fuzzy or dark so I can't share it with you.

After the church, we had a 20 minute coffee/happy place break in a place right outside the church. Since it is Sunday, the bells on the Cathedral started to ring to signal the start of services. It was a thrill to be standing below the tower as the bells were chiming. Our timing was perfect. After this, we walked through the streets and alleys of the city. The alleys were beautiful and we took many photos of the buildings.

We made our way to the Alcazar de los Reyes Christianos. It was constructed for the Catholic Monarchs in 1328. The building wasn't much to write home about (I've gotten so jaded on this trip!) but the garden was stunning. We were given an hour to wander around on our own and I spent the majority of the time in the garden sitting on a bench soaking up the sun and the scenery. Blissful!

After the Alcazar tour we headed back to the bus for the ride back to the hotel for lunch. It was a totally unremarkable lunch with no Spanish women (takes away all of the fun, doesn't it). At 2:00 we loaded onto the bus again for a three-hour drive to Grenada. Once again, I fell asleep and missed all of the scenery along the way.

We arrived at the hotel and had three hours to ourselves so I read a book. I know - I'm a dork for not exploring the area but I needed some down time. After a quick dinner at 7:30 I went out with three women to find a tapas bar. We had gotten directions from the hotel desk and set off down the hill towards town. We were given general directions to follow the route for bus #32 so every time we saw the bus we knew we were heading in the right direction. About half way to our destination, we spotted several Irish pubs and thought it would be an excellent idea to stop and check our directions over a pint of Guinness. So, even though we were in Spain, we enjoyed a bit of Ireland. Finest kind!

We talked to the bartender who was Irish (shocker!) and he told us about his favorite tapas place. We got directions from him and headed off again. After many wrong turns and asking for directions many times (one of the women spoke decent Spanish) we arrived at a tiny tapas bar run by a British man (did you see that one coming?). Just about everyone inside was speaking English so it appeared that we had located one of the local joints for the ex-pats living in Grenada. We enjoyed an hour or so of drink and tapas before exhaustion caught up with us. Since we had taken so many wrong turns to get to the bar we decided that a taxi would be in our best interests and we loaded into one and were soon back at the hotel. It had been a great day even though it had been a mish mash of experiences.