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| rows and rows of columns and arches in the catedral. |
Well, not much really.
Sunday, 2/24/13.
The group left Seville early and took a bus to Cordoba to meet our guide. We had a tour guide that kept insisting that Cordoba and the area surrounding it was much better any many ways than Granada. Things like, Cordoba is actually the real capital of Andalusia, and Granada isn't, and yada-yada-yada... I don't really know but why would someone say that to their group of customers from Granada? Anyway... I tuned him out and took in the scenery.
Basically, Cordoba has origins of both Roman and Moorish times, and then Catholics who destroyed and built over everything not Catholic, much like Rhonda. Random tid bit of info but according to Wikipedia, it is thought that Cordoba was the most populous city in the world during the tenth century, which is kind of funny because it is incredibly tiny today.
In the day we were there, we toured through the old Jewish corridors briefly. Our main point of interest was the "Mosque-Cathedral" of Cordoba; which is exactly as it sounds. Also know as the Mezquita, this wonder started as a mosque during the Medieval Moorish period and was then converted to its present day cathedral-ness. Out guide let us know that it actually did start as a Christian church, St. Vincent, in which the Moors overtook to make it a mosque, so it actually was just returned to its roots by the Catholics. And because non of you are here with me to sense the tension, yes, I would say there is still some tension between Catholics and non-Catholics, particularly Muslims. Why? Not sure, but Spanish people do take quite a bit of pride in their Catholicism. In the present day Muslims have lobbied to be able to pray here, given the building has an extensive background of being a mosque, but so far rejected.
So back to my point. This building is a mix of mosque and cathedral. Which makes you wonder... Where in the world am I?
One of my favorite parts of our tour was spotting bits of blue all over the city. Blue flower pots, blue door frames... okay mostly just a ton of blue flower pots. Still pretty!
At the end of the day our guide gave us a tour of the city in which we saw the Roman Bridge overthe Guadalquivir River, the Puerta del Puente, and the Facultad de Filosofia Letras... Which I had to snap a photo of.
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