Last day in Cordoba

We got up and headed down to the 8:30 AM opening of the Mezquita/cathedral that we toured last night. 

We were able to take photos this time except the cathedral itself was roped off so we couldn’t see much of the magnificent craftsmanship ( although we got some partial views from various angles). I wish we could have taken photos last night as this church is stunningly ornate. 

In the light of day I realized how much of the building has been converted to Catholicism. This was not apparent last night due to the way the tour went and the lighting provided during our visit. 

We were able to get near the mihrab niche where the Iman would lead the worship when the building was a mosque. The decoration is beautiful ( which in reality I can say for virtually all parts of this UNESCO World Heritage Site ).

The top photo above is the roof above the Imans mihrab niche, with the niche itself immediately above this comment.

Probably my favourite photo from inside the Mezquita

After about 45 minutes everybody was kicked out of the building as a church mass was about to happen in the cathedral. Caro wanted to participate so I went for a walk along the path up on the river bank.

I got a great shot of the Roman bridge with its reflection in the river.

Later I waited for Caro in the main courtyard and was amazed to see HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of people lined up for entry once the mass was completed. 

Caro said the service was beautiful and uplifting. 

Afterwards we needed brunch so there is a very famous stand up bar that has great food.  All the times we have wanted to try it out there were lineups but not this morning, so we had a couple small plates of delicious food typical of this area

Next stop were the Royal gardens. They were quite nice and this is where we sat in the shade, listening to the fountains and chatting. 

By 12:30 we were walking in 36 degrees heat and had to stop for refreshments. Tinto de Verano (red wine and lemon pop) for Caro and ice cold cerveza for me. As is typical here the server gave us a tapa (yummy)

We meandered our way through narrow streets and alleyways up to the Archaeological Museum which I really liked. Caro is not a big fan of museums but she “took one for the team” and wandered around while I admired much of what the museum had. 

As we headed back to the hotel for our afternoon break (7 hours of walking so far) we stopped for ice cream. Yummy yummy!

We had a much needed nap, then went to the pool for a while before going back into the old district where we had some supper. 

A walk back through new streets for us brought us to the plaza we always seem to arrive at.

The photo  was from a roof top bar and while we anticipated having a glass of wine the service was so bad we just walked out and came back to our room. Incidentally the temp right now is 39 degrees.

Only 20,000 steps today LOL