TRAVEL ALPHABET

The A to Z of My Favourite Travel Destinations

So many C places I’ve loved…Copenhagen, Cádiz, Carcassonne, Chester, Conwy, Canterbury…but I think Córdoba is my most favourite

Córdoba — 2011

The first time I visited Córdoba was with my sister and niece in December 2011. We made it our base for day trips to Granada and Gibraltar. Two of the days we spent in Córdoba were public holidays. The one clear memory I had was the Mesquite and spending the day with my sister. it was the only day in the whole 4 and a half month trip that we spent together — alone. This is what happens when you travel as a family.

Here is an excerpt from my travel journal.

“We found an entrance to a courtyard filled with orange trees and then came into a building, which was a Catholic cathedral. We thought, surely this can’t be the mesquite as we thought it was a mosque, so we asked the security guard. Yes, it was. How strange! Since we had entered for free, (it was free from 8.30–10 am, we didn’t sneak in), we didn’t get an audio guide so we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what had happened to the mosque. We were both outraged that the mosque had been desecrated by the Roman Catholic Church in such as manner and wondered how it had been allowed. We also found out the price for free entry was having to listen to a Latin mass being broadcast over the PA system of the entire mesquite for the duration of our visit! I won’t even attempt to describe the mesquite. We really wanted to find out the history of the mosque and why it was allowed to be wrecked. So we grabbed a coffee and set about finding a book that told us. We found a children’s book, which explained everything. We then got a little carried away buying postcards of the Mesquite (fondly called the mosquito by my sister) as we were sure our photos wouldn’t do it justice.”

“We then headed to the Roman Bridge to the Tower on the other side with the intention of climbing it to see the view back over the Mesquite. We entered only to find that we had to pay and there was an audio guide so we thought why not? There were 8 rooms detailing the history of Córdoba. Intriguing! It once had over a million inhabitants and was the largest city in Europe! I think that was in the tenth century. There were pioneers in astronomy and surgery and Christians, Muslims and Jews lived in harmony. We learnt some interesting things about Islam (I called it Muslimism) and if we wanted to turn Muslim back at the mesquite, this knowledge was just more confirmation that they weren’t all bad and in the case of the Mesquite, it was the Christians who were bad.”

“We then thought we’d check out the Alcazar Palace since it was built by a king called Alfonse who we thought, from our history lesson, was a good king. We sure didn’t want to look at any more churches! It has been built on some Roman ruins, which have since been excavated. Surprisingly, there were Roman mosaics on display on the walls of the castle but we think they may have originally been floors. Dinner was tapas at the Bodegas Mesquita. They were delicious. I had fried eggplant, grilled calamari and rice, and Andalusian pork all for less than 10 euro washed down with a litre jug of sangria. When in Rome…”

Córdoba — 2019

Almost exactly eight years later, I returned to Córdoba to spend a few days with my daughter, Stacey. We had caught the train from Granada so could spend the next few days exploring Córdoba. Neither of us wanted to return to Gibraltar. It’s the sort of place that was good to tick off my bucket list but I had no desire to go back. Those Barbary apes could have it to themselves.

This time we chose to stay in an airbnb; a patio house. Casa de patio- a real thing in Córdoba. They have yearly competitions to judge the prettiest patio. The patio is an internal courtyard decorated with hundreds of flowering pot plants and ferns — similar to the riads where we had stayed in Morocco.

We arrived early so Ana, our host, stowed all our luggage, and sent us off to Santi for a breakfast of churros, tostadas and coffee. The place was filled with locals and when we got the bill, we understood why. 6 euro for both of us!

The Mesquite

Off to visit the Mesquite — I took the audio option this time. The mosque had been extended several times over the past centuries, and it was interesting to note that they had reused many Roman columns so no column is identical to another. I hadn’t even noticed that on my first time here. I still think putting the cathedral smack bang in the middle has ruined the continuity of the beautiful rainbow arches, but the Mihrab remains intact and is truly breathtakingly beautiful. Nineteen different colours of tiles are used in the mosaics.

After our Mesquite visit, we stopped at a bar for a few tapas and a beer, before heading back to our airbnb. I made it back to the City Hall without getting lost, but I didn’t know the way from here and Stacey had my phone to take photos (her battery was flat) so I just started crying. I’ve figured out this is what I do when I’m overtired, combined with the fact that the Mesquite is quite an emotional place for me. We had walked more than 10 km so had an early night.

To make the best use of our remaining days in Córdoba, we decided to use the 2-day hop-on hop-off bus. Stacey located a stop quite close, so we wandered down to wait for the next bus which took us to the Torre de Calahorra, on the other side of the Guadalquivir River. It’s a museum detailing the history of Córdoba when Jews, Muslims and Christians all coexisted in a city of over a million people, the largest city in Europe. The population today is around 300,000 so it was hard to get my head around a city shrinking in size. After climbing to the rooftop viewpoint, we started walking across the old Roman Bridge, but were waylaid by an Arabic calligrapher. We were mesmerized and spent the rest of our cash with him.

Next was the Alcázar, the Palace of the Christian Kings. The gardens are simply stunning. Oranges, grapefruit, lemons and other fruit trees all thrive among poplars and spruce and palms. I was particularly drawn to the cyclamens in large planters. I have loved cyclamens since I received my first one as a get-well gift in 2004. It thrived, (I don’t have any sort of green thumb) and so started my obsession. Here was something I could not only keep alive but could propagate as well.

I had a cup of tea while Stacey visited the synagogue, and then ate some tapas for lunch at an outdoor café. We had a ghost tour booked at 5 pm, so thought we’d do a circuit on the bus while we were waiting. Stacey ran to catch the bus which waited for us and I followed as quickly as I could. A lady took my arm and helped me all the way. You do find lovely people all over the world.

We barely made it back to the starting point in time so had to run again. Our guide was a historian who knew everything there was to know about Córdoba’s history focusing on the Jewish quarter. The two-hour walk ended up taking three hours. I think it was because Stacey asked so many questions; she thinks it’s because I walked so slow. Probably both!

Almost too tired to eat (another 10km walking day!), we bought a baguette and some ham to eat with our blue cheese from the Aracena Cheese Festival. And had another early night. I was planning an easy day the next day. A hammam at 4, and a wine tasting tour at 5pm. Stacey woke up at 9.45 and rushed to catch the HOHO bus. I stayed taking it easy in bed. Not for long! She texted me saying she had got us into a private tour of the patio houses at 12, so I rushed down to the bus stop to catch the bus to the Alcázar where the tour started.

The patio houses of Córdoba

The tour of the patio houses was totally worth getting out of bed. The best tour yet! Not much walking and such beautiful houses with interesting histories. Twelve families used to live in the first house we visited; one family per room about the size of our bedroom with three shared kitchens, two washtubs, and the shared open space in the courtyard. The women used to wash on Sundays as they only had two sets of clothes; one to wear Monday to Saturday and their Sunday best. They hung their clothes high up on lines in the sun. Heavens only knows what would happen if it rained!

After seeing four patio houses, we hopped on the bus back to our stop. Stacey walked to get her togs for the hammam and I headed straight to Taberna Salinas for some late lunch. After eating, we ran to the hammam and made it just on 4.

After luxuriating in the hot pools and dunking in the cold pools, we went for our massage. Definitely more remedial than the one in Granada but still not hard enough. We undid all the good the bath and massage did us because we had to run to the wine tasting. He had waited for us, but was not as angry as we thought he would be for our being so late. He asked which we would rather — walk or wine and we both answered “wine” simultaneously.

This second trip to Córdoba definitely cemented it into one of my favourite European cities. I felt a vibe that I didn’t feel on my first visit — I just needed a few days to absorb it. I have nothing but good memories of all the wonderful people I met and the delicious food I ate and wine and drank!

Here is Sam Millichap’s favourite C destination. I haven’t visited Cologne — yet!

Here is Anne Bonfert’s A destination. A little unusual but this is what this series is about!

Here are my favourite places for A and B.