I didn’t post anything last night, but I just have to share the image of a new soup I had. It’s the “white version of the Salmorejo” … and oh was it yummy! It is almond based if I understand things correctly. But then I’m slow to understand things so I could be wrong. Our waiter was funny … a bit slow, but funny … and suggested vermut for our drink. It’s not like the vermouth we have at home, and it’s something they drink either straight or on the rocks. I’ve since read that it’s something we should try elsewhere … that different areas have different kinds. So we’ll see if we can do that.
After dinner it was just a walk home in the heat. No photos from that.
This morning we woke, had breakfast, and prepared for our train ride of about 2 hours.
And now … hello Madrid!
This is a very different city than the ones we’ve been in so far. More big city-ish. But we’ve only investigated a small amount, staying close to the hotel, because not only is it 100° out, but the air quality is not healthy at the moment. So here we are, hiding from the heat and scorching sun.
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.
Okay … wifi is working (barely), so I’ll quickly post a few more photos. We went out for a walk around 8:00PM, when it had cooled down … hah! Well, at least it was no longer over 100°. We finally saw people out and about, which we sure hadn’t seen earlier. The people who live here know better! We walked past the Mosque-Cathedral again, and ended up at the Roman Bridge before the dinner search.
Eventually we landed at a restaurant that was more contemporary, enjoyed a nice meal, and headed back, cameras in hand.
Today we left Sevilla and took a short (and fast!) train ride to Córdoba, as it had been highly recommended to me (the city, not the train!). Little did we know it was going to be as hot as can be, but we will deal. We also didn’t realize how much will be closed tomorrow, but we primarily wanted to get to the Mosque Cathedral and tower, and will probably also visit the Torre de la Calahorra and the Roman bridge. Anything else will be an extra bonus: we only have the one full day here.
Arriving in our room at the Eurostars Azahar we found no access to the free internet advertised, and the room safe isn’t working. Ah well. Minor glitches, really. I did ask if we could simply be moved to another room with a working safe and was told they had no other rooms available. I kind of figured the woman just wasn’t allowed to move us (I checked and they do have empty rooms … in fact I’ve barely seen anyone here). Oh well. Not worth being an annoying American about this, and I have connected to my phone so I can post this now. I might not post about the rest of the day, but only time will tell.
But now to the day … we checked out of the hotel and took the taxi to the train station. Thankfully we made sure we got on the right train (there were two in a row and one does have to be careful!
We arrived in Córdoba about 49 minutes later and easily got into our room, although we were told the only thing available was on the ground floor. (I suppose something higher would have been nice for views. We have no view at all, really. Whatever. We don’t spend too much time in our room! Okay, we do spend more time in rooms here in Spain: it’s simply too hot to go out sometimes. Right now, as I am typing, it is 101° outside … and it’s 7:30PM! But look at that photo below … me … in a skirt! No, it’s NOT that short … I was just trying to cool off! And, truth be told, I think I should dump it because I think it’s a tad too tight in the waist. Doggone it, I shouldn’t have dumped some clothes before the trip because I probably will need a larger size again. ARGH!
After a bit of time we headed out to find a light lunch. What a maze of streets! It is quite easy to get lost. (What did we all do before we had our phones that could help us get back to our hotels?)
The man who checked us in directed us to an area that would have more traditional food rather than the tourist fare so we went to a place we thought fit that. Trying to order with our nearly non-existent Spanish and the server’s non-existent English was sort of funny, but he put up with us and I had my wonderful bowl of cold soup again (I’m addicted!) and Dan had his chorizo. FINALLY we had a small lunch. (Please, waist, will you go back to what you were now that I’m trying to behave?!) Then it was heading back to the hotel and, yes, we had to use the phone to navigate.
We’ve been in our room ever since (except when Dan went to see if someone could help with the WIFI (nope!) and safe (nope again!). Can you guess why we have stayed in our air-conditioned room? Hm. I wonder.
But now we are down to … wait for it … a cool 101°. But hey, tomorrow looks to be a CRAZY hot day. Thankfully our tours are in the morning. Who knows what will do for the rest of the time. I can’t imagine being out in the predicted heat:
