Los Cordobeses

Hi! It has been a few days, and those of you who merely read this to follow the exploits of Marjan and her fear of death at my hands will have abandoned me by now. However I understand that there may be one or two others out there who have some interest in an occasional post from a lonely middle aged male. So this is one of those occasions.

By the way you may notice a change of blog title. I thought of Travels with my Aunt, of which there will be one or two later, but Graham Greene owns that one. So I found an appropriate Spanish saying that continues to define my travel philosophy.

After Marjan left me bereft and alone, I have had a couple of quiet days doing the familia thing. Eating, laughing, telling tall stories....true! I have exaggerated one or two myself! In the midst of that I have done one or two things.

I took my second cousin(?.....I get confused with the degree thing) to the Santiago Bernabeu to put some additional dollars into the meager coffers of Real Madrid. It was actually a fun day being with a twelve year old and seeing the world through his eyes. The most fun we had though was being true Madrileños after the RM tour and going for a bocadillo de calamares in the Plaza Mayor. If you have never had calamari in a roll whilst strolling in the winter sun, you should try it. But don't go on a Sunday afternoon when the Plaza Mayor has just been decorated for Christmas. We had to queue for a roll. Having to wait for food is really stressful. It was lovely to watch the street artists and parade of people. I think Alvaro enjoyed himself, I sure did. I was a kid again, laughing at the lame jokes of the street acrobat between tricks, dropping calamares onto my T-shirt, forgetting where I had my train ticket.....remember?

In the midst of all this Spanish family frivolity, Anna had headed off to Cordoba. I had really fond memories of Cordoba. We had last been in May of an almost previous life, and loved the colour of the spring flowers. Anna however did not get a great first impression of Cordoba. She had been a little unwell before heading off, but soldiered on, slightly odd for a Sanchez, but she did. She arrived, checked into her hostel and slept. She then woke sometime in the night feeling terrible and with no one around got a little worried and ended up taking herself to the hospital. Nothing serious, but things get worrying when you are travelling alone in a strange land. I will let her tell those of you she cares to the gory details and the examples of Cordobes hospitality she received. Suffice to say she is OK but needs to take it easy for a bit.  

What an opportunity for Dad! I can catch the AVE down, 2 hours for the four hundreds kilometers even with two intermediate stops, and give her a little TLC. Or at least buy her an apple whilst I enjoy Cordoba. 

So that is what I did today. Got on the 9am train and was in Cordoba shortly before eleven. Tried to walk to my hotel, but fell down whilst looking at google maps on my phone. Those of you who know me well, will know that no holiday is complete unless I fall down. I fell down the steps of the Royal Palace in Madrid last time I had a Spanish holiday, I have fallen and broken a lense on Magnetic Island, I have fallen and broken a camera on Mt Buffalo.....the list is endless. So having completed my holiday tradition, and having hurt nothing more than my miniscule pride, I dusted myself off and got to my hotel. Little place in the Juderia. 

I texted Anna and arranged to meet her in the Patio De Las Naranjas at the Mezquita. Is there a better place to wait for someone? Anna had been there but had not realised it was the cloister of the Cordoba Cathedral/mosque, which is one of the wonders of the world. At least for me. She thought it was just this wonderful place she had found around a corner of the Juderia. And is that not the best way to discover places? I envy her the experience of finding the Mezquita as she wandered, rather than as a thing to tick off the list.

It was great to see her and we sat there chatting, by the fountain, surrounded by the orange trees in full fruit, enjoying the winter sun, basking in the warmth of a father daughter moment. Then reality struck and we decided we needed to eat. So off we went and had a pretty nice meal at a place that had been recommended by one of the familia. I thought the spinach and chick peas were pretty good, and the waiter was a scream with the Andalusian accent. He gave us a run down of the specials that ran for three minutes of rapid fire, beautiful, lilting, but hard to follow andaluz spanish. I could not follow it all, but none the less it was all fine and the spinach and chick peas particularly nice. Another highlight was that they had Christmas carols playing. All flamenco style. I have to try to find Silent Night in flamenco on CD before I go. It rocks.

Anna was feeling in need of some rest, so we went to our respective hotels and napped. Well I had a bit of a water around the Juderia first, and I checked out the Roman Bridge.....yes Cordoba has Roman remains and all as well as the Islamic stuff....did you know Seneca was born here?......and a few other things of interest, but mostly I wandered as I like to do, and then I had a little sleep.

Anna had quite a long nap. Almost a second sleep, so we got together again reasonably late. Had another reasonable meal, the highlight of which was a plate of the good jamon iberico. I mean the good, make your tongue happy, can't normally afford it, but I am in Cordoba so what the heck, jamon. We did this whilst watching a flamenco performance, which was OK. Only Ok because the place was pretty sparsely populated so did not generate the spark that really gets good flamenco going.

Tomorrow we are planning to actually go inside the Mezquita. I think Anna may be even more impressed with what she stumbled upon. No, that is right, she is yet to see the inside. If she is the girl I think she is, she will be speechless......which is a good thing for all concerned. I think she is now enjoying Cordoba, strolling through the Juderia arm in arm is certainly better than rushing off to a hospital. We are feeling like a couple of Cordobeses and that is a thing to enjoy.

So in proper Cordobes spanish ' adio d'la mesquita'