Day 17: Camping Los Villares Sierra de Córdoba – Córdoba

 

Tonight we had the first rain of the trip and it cooled down a bit. Nevertheless: We can have breakfast outside and are happy about our special place a little away and a little elevated with a good view of what's going on around us :-)

It's a new experience for us that our car doesn't fit in all parking garages (height with the additional spare tire on it is 2.55 m) and the public parking spaces are so overcrowded that we have to search carefully again. But well, in Hamburg we don't drive into the city center.

We like Cordoba and the first place we head for is the “Mezquita – Catedral de Córdoba”, an incredibly impressive building. Built as a mosque on the site of a former church and repeatedly expanded, a Catholic church was later built into the huge area and consecrated. For a while the building was probably used by both religions at the same time. Islamic, Moorish and Gothic styles mix here and we can hardly get enough of the different alignments, looks and interconnections. Wolle is in this special place for the third time, and for Brigitte it is the first time.

In 1975, when Wolle was in Córdoba for the first time, the Mezquita was apparently much emptier than it is today, as a slide from the trip back then shows. A photo like this would hardly be possible today.

 

Afterwards we need a break. And let it be said here: a beer always works. The Spanish drink an incredible amount of beer at all times of the day. And we drink our way through the various offerings from Cervesa sin Alcohol. There is a small selection of “Zero” or “0.0” in every supermarket, and there is a lot of variety across supermarkets. What we liked best so far was “Moritz” from a brewery in Barcelona and we’ve just had “Triple Zero” (Sin Alcohol. Sin Azúcares. Zero CO2 – however that works).

After the break we walk to the “Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos” – the palace and gardens are rather clear and not quite as great as expected. In the late afternoon we have to hurry up. After a stop at a huge Carrefour we are back at the campsite just in time for dinner. We had reserved a table in the restaurant because there is a “skywalk” taking place here tomorrow (28 km off-road run) – it is correspondingly full.