Southern Comfort Meets Southern Spain

We finally arrived to our hotel in Córdoba after spending about 45 minutes driving around the city lost. The hotel (it was NOT a hostel, despite what Mickey and Linda thought) was perfectly located in the shadow of the famous Mezquita. Thursday night, we had a good dinner at one of Tori's recommended restaurants, "La Casa de Pepe". After dinner, we were all exhausted and went back to our 2 "double-bed"room (two twin beds pushed together constitutes a double-bed in Spain, hahaha).

Friday morning, we began our day in the Mezquita- the most famous building in Córdoba. The Mezquita (Spanish for "mosque") is a Catholic cathedral, originally built by the Moors. It was begun around 600 A.D. and not finished for another 174 years! The mosque is easily recognized by its hundreds of "candy-cane" painted double-arches. The courtyard of orange trees is a characteristic of many Arabic mosques. In 1236, the city was recaptured by the Spanish who then gave the mosque a Catholic twist. They added a beautiful cathedral nave in the center with plenty of Catholic symbols.

After the Mezquita, we headed to another Moorish site, the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos- named after the Christian monarchs, Isabelle and Ferdinand. The most interesting part of this castle was the garden. The fountains and flowers in the garden were very cool. The garden is hard to describe in words, but we took plenty of pictures, so take a look. (Interesting Fact: Columbus met the monarchs here in 1492 to plan his first voyage across the Atlantic). From here, we had an amazing lunch at a quaint restaurant down the street from the Alcazar. One of the best deals I have seen in Spain.

That night, we stepped into a hole-in-the-wall joint for drinks and ended up returning for dinner. Mickey being Mickey, made immediate friends with the owner (needless to say, he could speak English). He then gave us an interesting appetizer on the house ( I think, I never saw the bill) in which you cook a mini pork sausage yourself over a small flame. We washed down dinner with some ice cream cones and headed back to our hotel in order to get rest for our drive to Granada in the morning.