First of all … HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMESON! (I realize this is my travel blog, but I still want to wish our younger son a very happy birthday here … maybe he’ll read this at some point!)

We woke up earlier than usual today (still not truly early, however), so we could get to our 9:30 entry time at the Mezquita (Mosque-Cathedral) Tower. But first: breakfast.

Now I’m not usually a breakfast eater, aside from my cappuccino (this, in part, explains the weight gain already), but the hotel has a free breakfast and it seems a good way to save money. After all, if we eat a nice breakfast we can skip lunch … um … right?

Then we left for our morning adventure. Already the temperature outside was warming up, but it wasn’t nearly what we knew it would end up being, and we knew we wanted to do what we could before we were pretty much stuck in our hotel room. I was glad we were able to snag the 9:30 tower entry (it’s the earliest they offer), and then we opted for the 10:30 Mezquita entry, including the audio guided tour.

Walking to our destination I didn’t see a dip in the road and … oops! … twisted my left ankle. I’m so glad it wasn’t anything more than a twist, but it’s a little bit swollen and I had to take it slow for a while.

I hadn’t realized the tower was a timed tour: turns out the stairs are narrow enough that the group goes up together, and then comes back down. A guide goes along and tells us when to start on the next level. Stairs weren’t a problem, even with the sore ankle, although I did baby it a bit. I was (ta-da!) able to go outside and take in the views as long as I pretty much hugged the inside wall. At one point I even went closer to the fence at the edge, and I only made a few “Patty-is-scared” sounds. But what a view!

Then back down we went. We could have, as it turned out, gone for the 10:00 entry to the Mesquita, but we did walk around a bit in the courtyard. Some women heard us talking and came up saying they thought they heard us speaking English. They pointed to a spot nearby. Turns out some younger people were unearthing some remains by some trees, so we took a look there for a moment, and then headed over to a place were we could wait in the shade.

And then it was the Mezquita. Just wow. What an amazing place. In some ways it was, after a time, a bit overwhelming for me … tons to see, and it’s like too much chocolate or something. (Yes, in fact, one CAN have too much chocolate.) The combination of Catholic and Muslim was just fascinating. (Obviously they weren’t in the place at the same time … you can read about the history here.) We were in there for a good long time. Dan took a lot of photos, and I used the iPhone for the most part, because I’ve yet to figure out low-light photography.

Btw, I took a number of shots of the woman in the red dress: red is just so great for photos, and her dress was cool. We saw her later, outside of the Mezquita and it was pretty clear her feet were hurting. I’m so glad I had my good shoes on. I’m sure I would have a sprained ankle right now if I had other shoes on. But oh youth … when looks matter so much more than comfort!

OH … and one other note in case you can’t tell. The image with the “candles” … those are those small battery operated things. Somehow those just don’t have the same charm, you know?

At noon we were ready to move on, so we took some time to hydrate, and then walked for a bit, always deciding where to go by the shade factor. Yes, it was now hot. Eventually we wound up at a nice spot for lunch. Wait. LUNCH?! I did say we could skip it since we had breakfast. But I guess I lied. Go figure. I had my favorite Salmorejo soup with bread. Not too bad for weight right? But THAN … because it was SO hot out we had to have some ice cream. I mean … we were doing it for our health, right? Besides, we were getting our calcium. (Okay, okay, I probably need to walk an extra mile or two (or three) due to that ice cream cone. Sigh.)

And then back to our hotel, where we are probably going to hang out for a mighty long time. According to Wunderground t’s now 109° outside, and the temperature is going higher and higher. It’s simply not healthy to be out in this heat.

I may or may not share any more from today. The only other thing we will do is have dinner, and I’ll bet we don’t get that until around 9:00 PM. Even then it is supposed to be 104° although I’m hoping that prediction is incorrect. Eating late is hard on me — it means I won’t sleep well — but maybe I’ll eventually adjust to this sort of life. Time will tell.