Seniors in Spain 2018: 7/25/2018-Cordoba-Mezquita, Calleja de las Flores/Little Flower Street, dinner-Cielito Lindo Cafe

Breakfast. I find out that I can ask for eggs to order and I ask for eggs over medium. They're done perfectly. The white is cooked but the yolks are still runny so I can dip my toast in it. 😋 I also have fruit. Richard sticks to making himself a breakfast sandwich with ham, cheese, and salmon and vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers... The coffee machine is pretty neat. You place your cup and select what you want. I push the circle for cafe con leche/coffee with milk. I also mix it up and have grapefruit juice instead of my usual orange juice or pineapple juice. As we're heading out over to old town we notice a group of guests over by a table in the lobby area. I check it out and see that the hotel has a huge jug of lemon water, fresh fruit, candies for guests. How nice. On our walk to our first sightseeing stop we pass by some places I want to check out for later.

Eggs over medium and toast

Fruit

Richard's breakfast sandwich

Goodies in the lobby area

Casa de Sefarad

Narrow street in the Jewish Quarter

Unfortunately the Synagogue/Sinagoga is closed for restoration 😞

Can barely see one of the Patios of Cordoba which are on view mainly in May

Maimonides statue-Talmudic scholar, astronomer, and medical doctor

MEZQUITA. Cost €10 per person. The mosque cathedral of Cordoba. UNESCO WORLD Heritage Site. Alliance of art and faith. Space originally occupied by Visigoth Basilica of San Vincente-mid 6th c. Abd al-Rahman I built the original Mosque 786-788. Then the floor plan had 11 naves standing perpendicular to the qibla wall. It was enlarged by Abd al-Rahman II 833-848. He extended the prayer hall with 8 south facing naves. In 951caliph Abd al-Rahman III began to build a new minaret. Al-Hakam II did a second enlargement 962-966 which was the most creative. 12 new south facing sections were added and the building got an elongated floor plan emphasizing the mihrab and maqsurah as special focuses. Final enlargement done by Almanzor in 991 by adding 8 new naves. This made the space rectangular. With the conquest of Cordoba in 1236 the Aljama was consecrated as a Catholic church and the main altar was installed in the former skylight of Al-Hakam II. Main chapel constructed 1489. Transept completed 1607. So now we have a 16th c. church in the middle of the mosque. Massive exterior 600' by 400'. The Patio de los Naranjos is free to enter. Bell Tower-built over the remains of the former minaret. Walking from the courtyard of orchard of orange trees enter into a veritable forest of columns. There are supposed to be more than 800 columns. Topped with double arches-round Romanesque arch above a Visigothic horseshoe arch made of alternating red brick and white stone. It's a bit dark so my pictures don't turn out as well as I wanted. There is so much to see! A glass floor covering a section of Visigothic mosaic. This is what remains from the original church-San Vincente 6th c. This is important as it proves there was a church on this site before the mosque. On display in a corner are Visigothic ruins. Then it's the mosque's focal point-the Mihrab. Like the church's high altar. Decorated niche. Golden arch. Mid 10th c. Multi color glass and enamel cubes. Above is a starry dome with skylights. Royal Chapel closed to visitors. Can kind of peek in. Designed for the tombs of Fernando IV and Alfonso XI-Christian kings of Castile. Treasury-display cases of religious artifacts and huge monstrance. Bottom is silver plated 18th c. Baroque and the top is late Gothic-solid silver with gold plating. Spectacular ceiling. Altar. Choir-mahogany. 18th c. Andalusian Baroque. Each features a scene from the Bible-Mary's life on one side and Jesus' life on the other. Lower chairs-carved reliefs of martyrs of Cordoba-each with a palm frond symbolizing their martyrdom and scene of their death in the background. All of a sudden there's a guy telling everyone we have to leave. I'm disappointed as I would have like to stay a little while more. But our timed ticket for the Bell Tower is for 12:00 PM and it's 11:30 AM now.

Courtyard

Ticket

Visigothic mosaic

Visigothic ruins

Altar

Choir

Leaving

Bell Tower/Minaret. Cost €2 each. We picked 12:00 PM as our time slot. The guy has a notebook so he writes down the ticket number and that's how they monitor the number of tickets sold for each time slot. On the ticket he writes the time of our entry. Built over the remains of the original Muslim minaret 1600. Nice views. We had to leave Mezquita at 11:30 AM. Walking around I spot a sign by the ticket counter that states due to the festival of Santiago today's visits are in 2 stages. The first is from 8:30-11:30 AM and the second is from 2:00-7:00 PM. If I had known that we would have arrived at 8:30 AM. A group of around 20 is allowed to go up the Bell Tower every 30 minutes. So you have 30 minutes total to climb up and down and take in the views, etc. I make it to the top in 7 minutes! There is a man at the top that takes our tickets but doesn't give them back. I'm a bit peeved as I will do a scrapbook of this trip and I would have put one of the tickets on a page for our visit to Mezquita.

Courtyard

Bell Tower

2 levels of bells

Puerta de las Palmas-entrance door to Mezquita is closed now

Some original beams

Stairs going up in the Bell Tower

View

View of palm trees, cypresses, olive trees, jacaranda, and orange trees

Part of the original minaret building

We're down and another group is now going up

Door to the street-Puerta del Perdon/Door of Forgiveness, main entry to the site

Walking around in the Jewish Quarter we stumble upon the Calleja de las Flores-Street of Flowers. Pretty flower decked street. See courtyards of little shops selling leather goods, ceramics, postcards. Calle de las Comedias takes us back to the Mezquita area. Palacio de Congressos y Exposiciones. Plague Monument again. Roman Bridge and Calahorra Tower again. Finally decide to head back to our hotel for some pool time.

Can see Mezquita's Bell Tower framed nicely here

Palacio de Congressos y Exposiciones

Outside wall of Mezquita

Plague Monument

Roman Bridge and Calahorra Tower

Mezquita

We get to the pool around 3:30 PM and spend several hours here enjoying the views and cooling off in the water.

Dinner-Cielito Lindo. Mexican. Have to take a taxi as it's not walkable from our hotel. The place is small and very quirky. It's decorated with all these little people-pirates, knights, princesses. It's really very cute. Drinks-Margaritas of course. They are just the right balance of sweet and salty and sour. Yummy! Then we order the Guacamole Cielito Lindo-quacamole with chopped bits of tomato, onion, cilantro, jalepena, and homemade nacho chips. Tasty. Out comes a dish of olives and peppers. Richard ordered the Morena tacos-mix of pork and beef. I got the colored enchilada-chicken, spicy tomato sauce, cheese, and a little bit of cream. We ordered mango margaritas and they were even better than the originals we got first. The food was fantastic. Our server was great. This place was a good choice and deserved the good reviews on Trip Advisor. A nice change from tapas. Cost without tip $50.94. Back to the hotel to pack. Tomorrow we drive to Granada and Alhambra!