We needed to head south
and had already decided to go via Cordoba, but at the last minute we
included two tiny towns called Ubeda and Baeza, recommended by 'the
book' for their medieval buildings. This was probably our first real
glimpse of Spanish village life. I tried really hard to get a photo
of the beautiful tiny side streets, but in the van I just
kept missing them. Mike already thought he was driving slow, the idea
of going any slower just didn't compute. And to be fair, there was
usually a local, inches away from the back bumper, urging us on.
We
ended up driving down some of these lanes, really quaint and really
narrow. I admit to holding my
breath a couple of times. But the buildings were beautiful and we're
glad we detoured.
On
our way out we stopped in Baeza to get some lunch. All the way along
so far, we had been seeing heaps
of whole cured pork legs (trotter still attached) for sale in shops,
including standard supermarkets. At this place, we saw it in action.
You can buy a bracket which clamps this leg in place, and the
chef/wife or whoever just removes the skin and fat, and slices off
the cured pork, a lot like proscuitto, a lot
of proscuitto! It gave a whole new meaning to the expression 'a leg
of ham'. We had it with cheese in a baguette, and it was a little bit
chewy, but full of flavour.
Cordoba
was, in short, a nightmare. The only map we had to go by was the very
basic one in the Lonely Planet,
which focussed only on the old town (which we ended up in the middle
of), and catered for pedestrians. Plus, as one nice hostal
owner told us, in Spanish, the police had 'changed the roads around'
the day before! There were barriers up, possibly for an event in the
town, we're not sure. But between those, and permanent no entry
signs, we got ourselves into a circle of a small part of the old town
that we couldn't get out of. Oh...my...God. This was our first
super-tense moment. Custody papers for Ruby went on the dash for imminent discussion. With the help of a nice police officer, we did
get out, tried a few hotels that were too expensive or didn't offer
parking, and ended up going with one from 'the book', in the old town
anyway, right across
the road from the mezquita,
the building Cordoba is famous for.
It was an okay price, and we
understood from the guy on the phone that he had parking. He didn't,
we had to park under the hotel next door, and pay €14 for the
privilege, but it was a bed, and a shower,
which by now was an urgent necessity, the hotel had heaps of
character, and the location was amazing!
It meant that we could see the old town so easily.
We
got to the mezquita
half an hour before closing time (awesome, otherwise we would have
been leaving at 11 the next morning). There are only a couple of
times I've been able to say that I've seen something that has truly
taken my breath away, and I'm adding this to the list. The rows and
rows of red and white arches disappearing into the dim, cavernous
interior really have to be seen to be appreciated. There is so much I
could say about it, but words just aren't enough.
A
walk around the old town found us a touristic but quaint restaurant
for dinner, with surprisingly good food (any one who has been
disappointed by a promising maître
d’ in
a tourist precinct knows what I mean). Our waiter was honest about
the food offered, which meant Mike got the thick, juicy steak
(entrecote) that he wanted, instead of the thin schnitzel-style steak
he was about to order.
We
continued our trend to get moving slowly in the morning, but once on
the road we left Cordoba quick smart. Nice city, and we were thankful
for our 3 showers each (making the most of it while it's available!),
but we didn't need to spend any more time driving around it.
