An Extra Hour

Last weekend was daylight savings here in Spain and never before have I been more grateful for a 25-hour day!  So many times you hear the complaint that there aren't enough hours in the day for everything that needs to get done...well it turns out that with just a mere 60 minutes more in the day, you can accomplish quite a lot. ;)

The nave adjacent to the main altar--stark contrast

Sunday we got up "early" (around nine o'clock old time), walked Bela, had breakfast, cleaned up at the bar and then hit the road for Córdoba.  Natalie is leaving on the 25th of this month and so the pressure is on to see as much as we can over the few weekends we have left.  Córdoba is an amazing city.  The center is a labyrinth of stone-paved streets and white facades bearing potted flowers and painted plates.  The cathedral/mosque is absolutely amazing, in my opinion.  I know I've written about it before on here, but just as with the Alhambra, I never get tired of visiting it.  This time I was particularly struck by the beauty of the Islamic geometric decorations and the beautiful contrast between the upward, luminous gothic architecture of the Christian cathedral, and the dim, mysterious, more personal and less grandiose, which isn't to say less beautiful, Islamic mosque.

Any of you reading this out of context are wondering what on Earth I'm talking about.  As is the case with many (if not all) cathedrals in Andalusia, the Córdoba cathedral was built at the site of the old Islamic mosque. However, unlike other cases across the state where the mosques were completely razed and then built over by the Christians, in Córdoba nearly all of the original mosque is preserved.  The main altar was built in the middle of the mosque so the sudden high ceilings and gothic arches contrast, rather than hamonize, with the typical horse-shoe Islamic arches. 

A forest of columns and red and white double arches

Rose window floods the mosque with rainbow light.

 Although it is a functioning Catholic sanctuary today, the cathedral is referred to as "La Mezquita" (The Mosque) and it is the finest remaining example of Omeyan architecture in the West.  The Omeyans in al-Andalus were descendants of the Caliph in Damascus, Siria.  Córdoba became the capital of the Omeyan Caliphate in the year 929 and the mosque had to be enlarged three times in its history due to population growth in the caliphate city.

Emily and Natalie at Madinat al-Zahara

Our tour of Córdoba began at the ancient city ruins of Madinat al-Zahara (The Shining City).  Unfortunately the interpretive video wasn't being shown, I guess the projector was broken so Natalie didn't get the full tour.  We did wander through the museum though and that was helpful in appreciating the ruins.  It was boiling hot...even on October 29, so we didn't dally among the shadeless ruins.

After lunch in the city center, we visited La Mezquita and then wandered down to the roman bridge across the river Genil for a photo op.  In our wandering around after lunch and before the cathedral, we found a turrón (Spanish nougat) shop and Natalie was shopping for some things to take home for family.  They had samples out and I saw some little chocolate balls which I took to be chocolate covered rasins.  I grabbed two and gave one to Emily, which she promptly began to eat, and then bit into my own.  It took me about 2 seconds to realize that I was eating a chocolate covered peanut--remember Emily is allergic!  I screamed at her to spit it out, which she did, and gave her some water to clean her mouth...but the damage had been done. 

As we were waiting in line to buy our tickets to the cathedral she began to cry complaining that her stomach was cramping. :(  She hung in there and I thought she was going to be fine without throwing up, but just after our stroll out over the bridge she threw up as she was skipping along the street holding Natalie's hand.  Poor baby.  Thankfully, we had extra clothes and since I knew this wasn't the stomach flu, we got an ice cream to get the flavor out of her mouth, which of course made her forget all about being sick.

I was exhausted by the time 8pm rolled around, but we certainly fit a lot into our day.

Emily is obsessed with smells, and LOVED this tea display on the street!