Cordoba: Lola drives, V navigates

Of course, that's not true. Two gps systems navigated us to Cordoba. On the way, we took the expressway and on the way back, taking Nicole's advice,  the national road which goes through some small towns and is more picturesque. Either way, you see lots and lots of olive groves and beautiful, if dry, hills.  Driving on the highways went smoothly, but in the city, it was a little confusing. Mostly, we went around and around roundabouts until we figured out which exit to take. All these historic centers of tourist towns with narrow streets should be required to post street names at least on the corners, if not every two feet. The best signage is usually how to get to the nearest McDonald's.

Before renting a car, we probably should have done that search on "Spain highway signs" but we didn't. Most are self-explanatory except for the one that seems to say "only red cars can pass other cars" and the one that shows a reindeer leaping into the air.  It turns out that sign means "wild animals" as opposed to "Rudolph ahead." Other countries have similar signs but not exactly the same one. All the wild animal signs, though, seem to have something to do with deer.

It's almost a two hour drive to Cordoba and we had to stop at a service area just to see what services they offer. We went to a restaurant to get coffee but decided before we wasted time sitting and drinking it, we would look to see what the gas station offered. For one euro each, we got one of the best cups of coffee ever, in a travel mug.  The attendant made espresso , filled it with steamed milk and we were on our way in under a half hour.  Besides the fact that good coffee takes awhile to brew, the other reason it took so long is that it takes a long time to pay for anything in Spain. Two customers who bought gas were ahead of us in line and each took about 5 minutes having a conversation about who knows what and waiting for the attendant to put all the credit card information into his register.  As for other facilities, even the gas station bathroom wins as best gas station bathroom ever. It's clear--Spain has the best bathrooms of any country in Europe.

The reason anyone goes to Cordoba is to see the  Mesquita which is a mosque-cathedral which dates from 784. The site was originally a temple from the Visigoth era, but when Muslims conquered Spain in 711, they divided the church into Muslim and Christian halves. The Muslims bought the Christian half around 784 and demolished the original structure. They built a mosque which lasted until 1236 when the site was turned into a Catholic Church.

The structure is huge and full of arches. I counted around 25 as you look down one of the many rows.  Many arch designs are represented. There is some significance to the arrangements, I think, but I don't know what they are. Here are some Lola shots with her designations:

Dramatic Arch

Row of Arches (and there were lots of rows)

Eyebrow Arch

Organ (having nothing to do with arches)

It's gotten really hot here again so after the tour of the cathedral, we walked around the Jewish section of town for awhile and then made our way back to the parking garage which is very close to the Cathedral.  Once you get out of the city, navigating back to Seville is not difficult. We rented the car and parked it for the night close by the train station. We can walk from the apartment so that's been convenient. By the time we got back, we both had dead phones so we charged those up a little, walked to a restaurant for tapas and wine and more wine and called it a day.