January 10, 2004

Cordoba

We spent more time this morning driving past hills full of olive trees on the way to Cordoba. After settling in at the hotel, a few of us went out in search of a grocery store. If you buy jam and cheese every few days, then all you have to buy at lunch is bread and a drink. It keeps the lunch budget to about $1 a day rather than $5. We walked through the main plaza during siesta time and found it filled with people of all ages, as well as fountains, carousels, plants, and benches (on which we picnicked).

In the afternoon, we had the most wonderful tour guide who took us around the city via bus to catch a glimpse of the monuments. We came around the corner, and the tour guide started to point out a Roman monument on the left side of the bus. I was toward the back and couldn't see it yet, so I was rather distractedly watching three Gypsy women walking down the sidewalk on the right. The entire bus was looking the other direction when one of the women just took off her shirt. She was standing in the middle of a busy street in a large city naked from the waist up! I was the only one who saw this most humorous addendum to the tour.

We ended the tour at La Mezquita, the only mosque still standing in Spain. It was converted into a cathedral by the first Christian conquerors, so Ferdinand and Isabella decided
to leave it standing. It is truly a bizarre mix of Moorish and European styles. The Romanesque and horseshoe arches cover the whole of the interior, and there are 1800 columns on the inside. At one point, prior to the Catholicizing of it, one could see from one end of the building to the other. Such was the openness of Islamic design. The cathedral itself is