The Trip: Cordoba part 1

I haven´t really mastered the art of the blog. I recognize that a blog works best when it is updated regularly and the entries are kept short. So I am going to divide my writings about our journey south into relatively small segments.

My favorite part of this trip was our journey to Andalucia in the south of Spain.

We headed out early Monday morning for Córdoba on the train. I thought it moved fast when we went to Toledo, but this train was much faster. It was a longer trip so there was time to really pull out all the stops. It must have been going close to 200mph on the flat stretches.

Every old city in Spain has a Juderia, o Jewish quarter. Up until 1492 when they were expelled the Sephardic Jews formed an important part of Spain´s cultural and intelectual life. The Judería have small winding streets,
perhaps 10 feet across at the wider points, and buildings that are tall enough to provide shade. The streets are cobblestone, and every building has a central courtyard, which, if you can catch a glimpse of it, is often the most beautiful part of the building. Because the streets are laid out haphazerdly, they meet at odd angles of fail to meet. The curve so that you lose sight of which way is which. Due to this there ar a lot of plazas and squares. You can be walking along this narrow street and all of the sudden it opens up into a small laza with four or five streets coming off it. Invariably in these plazas there are several cafés that have their chairs and tables spread out into the street. They make wonderful places to sit for a moment and have a cup of coffee or a quick snack.

All of this is true, to a lesser extent of, not just the Juderia, but all of the old city that was within the city walls.

When we arrived we walked from the train station and found a nice hostel in the Juderia. We left our bags and began our exploration of Cordoba....