For anyone who has been reading our blog for awhile, you might remember that we visited Cordoba, Argentina last year.  A year later, we found our way to Cordoba, Spain.  Cordoba was one of the great Muslim cities in Spain, and still has an interesting mix of things to see.  After we arrived, we went to see the Mesquita, or mosque.  It was one of the great mosques of the world, but after the Catholic king and queen reconquered Spain the mosque was converted into a church.  It is fascinating inside – it still looks like a mosque except that in the middle there has been a chapel area walled off.  It is huge – we spent ages exploring here.

 

 

 

 

 

After the Mesquita, we walked over the Roman bridge, then back to see the Alcazar of the Christian kings (pictured above).  This had a beautiful garden – despite the rain we had fun playing here .

 

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was the synagogue, one of only a few Jewish synagogues still in use in Spain.  We finished with a dinner of shared tapas – a good budget option and way to try lots of different foods!

 

 

 

On our second day we took a bus to the Medina Azahara ruins.  The ruins are the site of a former Muslim palace that is less than 10km from Cordoba.  We were disappointed that the main hall was closed for renovations, but still enjoyed walking through the ruins seeing former houses, beautiful arches and where the mosque had been.  There weren’t many people around, so it was very peaceful wandering here.

 

 

 

 

 

After a picnic lunch we checked out the excellent museum before returning to Cordoba where we tried the local specialities of Salmorejo (cold tomato soup) and patata tortilla (a potato omelet).  We then took a train to Seville to experience Semana Santa (next post).