Cordoba or Cordova...Depends On the Map

On the way home from Madrid, we hopped off the bus for a few hours to explore Cordoba. It isn't too far from Sevilla. It was a beautiful town and I would have liked to explore it a little more, but our PB&J fixins were stored in the locker at the bus station and the troops were getting hungry (have I mentioned that they are hungry ALL THE TIME?). Our first stop after getting off the bus was of course at a great park, which luckily had ice cream. The two things that make everyone happy. Then we meandered around the old Jewish quarter and got lost looking for the Mezquita (along with everyone else). Luckily we weren't trying to use a map and just tried asking for directions, which got us there much faster. We knew we were close when the tourist shops started popping up. The Mezquita is a large and beautiful cathedral that used to be a mosque at one time. When the Christians conquered the Muslims, luckily, they chose to mostly preserve this building rather than tear it down to build a cathedral.

This is the Mihrab which is like an altar that the Muslims use. The tiles on the floor are about the same size as a prayer rug and they could fit 20,000 people in the Mezquita for the Muslims call to prayer. When the imam spoke to his followers he would face the wall in this niche and give his sermon. The acoustics acted like a microphone so all could hear.

This is the Catholic altar.

Many rich people are buried here in the Mezquita. There is a section where royalty are entombed that is not public.

The Mezquita is so big and amazing, it is hard to capture in pictures (especially with just the iphone). So glad we were able to see it.

In May, Cordoba holds a patio contest where patio gardens (inner courtyards that greet you when you go to a home) are judged and given awards for the most beautiful. The streets were all lined with blue pots filled with geraniums and there were lots of geraniums and other flowers flowing from the balconies. We passed by one home that had about five plaques on their wall showing that they had won the contest for multiple years, unfortunately the door to their patio was closed. I would have liked to wander around and see more of these, but like I said we were ready for our PB&J's.