Cordoba, Spain

After Consuegra, we drove for about 2 1/2 hours until we arrived in Cordoba.  We arrived there at about midnight and were happy to sleep in soft beds.  We had an early start on Friday, May 10th because we had a lot we wanted to see.  

The Mezquita, or Mosque-Cathedral

This was an ancient mosque that was later turned into a cathedral.  It was so interesting to see the two different architectural styles all through the building.  It had been an open building long ago, but once it because a cathedral, they closed up the archways to make it all enclosed. 

The interior of the building was amazing.  

All of these arches in this striped pattern--all over!

It was so large inside too!  We walked around for a long time, enjoying the atmosphere and the exquisite detail.  It's amazing to think that this building has lasted for centuries!

 The Catholic church used areas on the peripheral to build their little chapels to honor different saints.  And of course they had their symbols of Christ in the center of the building as well.

 We thought this was interesting: it's artwork depicting John the Baptist baptizing Jesus who is standing in the Jordan River.  But John is sprinkling Jesus.  Why then would He need to be in the river if He was only to be sprinkled with water?

Again, we loved seeing all the wonderful detail all throughout the Mezquita.

Outside in the courtyard we again enjoyed the bells ringing from the bell tower.

After walking around the Mezquita, we walked along an old Roman bridge.

In our guide book, it mentioned there being remains of an ancient water wheel along that stretch of the river.  We looked and looked and according to the little map, it should've been right there.  We couldn't find it until we gave up and were on our way to the Castle of the Catholic Monarchs.

Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos-The Castle of the Christian/Catholic Monarchs

 I loved this statue that was the first thing we saw as we entered the gates of the castle.

We first walked up to the top to catch the views of the city and also down into the gardens and courtyards.

We walked through the castle itself, but there wasn't much there.  There were a few rooms that had things in them.  There were so many interestingly shaped rooms and I was curious to know what they would've been...but I guess I won't ever know. :D

 This was an imprint of Queen Isabella's hand. 

Then we walked through the beautiful gardens.

 We liked these statues of the King and Queen and we believe Christopher Columbus was the third.

After walking throughout the grounds of the castle, we walked through the old city to find an old synagogue.  Some of the things we saw on our walk:

 They had these light bulbs above several of their statues all around the city.  Not sure what the message they were trying to say--maybe they were trying to discourage birds from sitting on the heads...?  Maybe the statues were all having great ideas...?

Synagogue

The Jewish synagogue was in a really tight, narrow part of the old town--the Jewish quarter.  (The first picture shows the word for Spain in Hebrew, that is also in the shape of Spain.)  We had to wait in a long line to get in.  And it was pretty small once we were inside.  It was just 4 walls with writing on them.  But it is one of the oldest synagogues in Europe, so that's pretty awesome.  Glenn had fallen asleep in my arms and I was okay with it being an easy site to see.

And that was our visit of Cordoba!  

Oh, this was our parking garage...and one of the cars also parking there.

We really like Cordoba.  We were happy with what we got to see.  And one of the best thing--everything we saw was free!  We had been there early enough for the 'free hours', so each place was free to visit.  That's the way to sight see!