Cordoba

On Monday, we set off to see a house in a village in the south of Cordoba province - less than an hour away. On paper, the house was ours. It met all our critera and the owners needed to sell. It even had an apartment for visitors (Perpetua!) or for FR's parents to come and stay as long as they wanted. And a pool.

And it was really lovely. However, the village, full of beautiful houses, was only occupied to around 30% and that with people over the age of 60. Nothing wrong with that per se but on a day that was a school holiday, we saw only two children in two hours - the village was without life.

We went to the neighbouring village, where there were schools but that was even less inspiring. The children were with us and they agreed it was just too quiet. It made us realise again just how lively and bustling Alcala  la Real always is and how very difficult it will be to find anywhere quite like it.

So we decided we'd just have a day out instead, rather than make any life-changing decisions

And we drove to Cordoba.

Cordoba is the home of the famous Moorish Mezquita and wonderful Andalucian patios filled with flowers and sweet-smelling plants. It is on the River Guadalquivir and the roots of the city go back for centuries. The Romans were there building their ubiquitous walls, bridges and roads. Then the Arabs came, in around the 8th Century, expanding the Great Mosque and building the wonderful royal residence at Medina Azahara. In the 10th and 11th Centuries, Cordoba was said to be the most populated city in the whole world and was certainly the intellectual centre of Europe.


Around two hundred years later, the Christians arrived, the Moors left and things started to change. The Mezquita was only 'tweaked' - most of its Moorish insides were left pretty much intact, fortunately. The Christians did, however, expulse the Jews - a while after they'd got rid of the Moors -  and as time went on this led to a financial and economical decline - not helped another few centuries later by Napoleon's visit - a not entirely friendly occupation. Not until the 20th century did Cordoba manage to reestablish itself as a University city with an acknowledged historical centre, declared World Heritage by UNESCO.

Gorgeous patio photo courtesy of nh hoteles

We arrived from the south and drove across one of the many bridges into the city, finding ourselves on a wide, six-laned carriageway. Swept along by the traffic, we could see to our right the ancient town walls which we were eager to explore. At a large roundabout, we returned the way we came and found a most convenient carpark, with plenty spaces, right opposite the old walls. The rain - which had passed over us most of the morning - had stopped and the sun was warm.


As we crossed the road and headed down some steps, through a big, warm-coloured, sandstone arch, we entered a pedestrian zone where the scent of orange blossom on the trees almost lifted you off your feet with pleasure. The streets were cobbled and seemed to get narrower as we walked parallel to the river towards the Mezquita and the Mediaeval Jewish quarter. It was overwhelmingly beautiful, dramatic and yet peaceful and elegant - giving off, to me at least, the most wonderful positive vibes. I have been once before, almost seventeen years ago, with my mother-in-law. We visited the Mezquita and walked around the ancient streets where I remember feeling as though I could sense the intellectual vibrations from centuries ago - it felt like a very learned place. On Monday, it still felt learned but it felt like a city that had learned how to have fun with that too.

I have fallen in love with Cordoba - and whilst the comparison doesn't hold much water - it reminded me of another place I always loved to visit in the UK. It reminded me of York. The colours were different, the climate was very different (I've never been warm in York!) and the previous inhabitants have varied - theVikings brought a different culture to the Moors and left a different inheritance - but there was something of the same confidence of a city with a past; with a huge, imposing and impressive place of worship; with a wide, energy-giving river running through it; and with a constant stream of visitors walking its historic pavements smoother and keeping that sense of history alive.

I shall go back to Cordoba soon. This time, I WILL take my camera with me.