Tag Archives: La Mezquita

June 25, 2016 · 6:05 am

Córdoba, España

Back to more posts about Spain!! This one is about our day trip to Córdoba from Málaga, one of only a few nice weather days that we had on our trip. It started out chilly but warmed nicely by midday. We had tickets for a table for this train ride which was something new. When searching for these tickets, it was cheaper to buy four seats at a table than three regular seats.

It’s only about an hour train ride but it travels through very scenic countryside and pretty soon you’re in Córdoba. Such a cute and very walkable little town with ancient buildings including the big draw, La Mezquita (the mosque). We opted to take a taxi instead of walking to the Mezquita and the driver dropped us at the front door. The moment you walk into the mosque you can smell how old it is. What lies in front of you are row upon row of white and red arches, 856 of them! This humongous building has been through many transformations, starting out as a church, then it became a mosque and in the 16th century King Carlos V had a cathedral built in the middle of the mosque! It is the strangest building I’ve even seen. The king himself did not like the way the cathedral turned out and famously said “they have taken something unique in all the world and destroyed it to build something you can find in any city”. I hope you will enjoy this gallery of the inside of the mezquita/catedral:

example of one of the many crypts in the floor

cathedral ceiling-Córdoba

cathedral

man cleaning brass in the cathedral

we dubbed this the gold room

Mihrab

Mihrab close up

beautiful tiles

Afterwards we strolled along the streets near the Mezquita to view one of three remaining Jewish synagogues in Spain, the other two are in Toledo. It is so tiny that it’s hard to imagine people worshipped in there. We made our way to Plaza de las Tendillas where we had lunch and visited some shops. We wandered around some more and soon it was time to catch our train back to Málaga.

minaret in the Patio de los Naranjos of La Mezquita

Sinagoga

more beautiful tiles

Miss M, looking like a tourist

Maimonides, medieval Jewish scholar

I will leave you with one of my favorite photos from the trip, taken from the train on our way back to Málaga:

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Tagged as Córdoba, España, La Mezquita, photography, Spain, travel

January 31, 2015 · 11:22 am

so…….I’m going back to Spain

We are planning to take a two week trip to Spain during spring break next year. EEK! It’s NEXT year already!! Wow, how the time it does fly. And I thought I’d create a blog post just for it. It’s good to have a rough agenda of at least where you’ll be and to have hotels booked. We will be staying in only three cities this time, Barcelona, Madrid and Málaga, which will allow us a few day trips. This differs from our last two week adventure 5 years ago when we stayed in too many cities. Oh, it was a fabulous trip, but it was a bit too much travelling between cities.

We know the hotels we’d like to stay at in Madrid and Málaga but we haven’t yet chosen our hotel for Barcelona. Perhaps there are other travelers out there that could give a recommendation? Either way, here are two that really interest me. We need a hotel that is close to a metro, not on the Ramblas but a short walk to it would be great. It should be able to accommodate three people. Both of these hotels meet those criteria.

First is Villa Emilia. It’s #23 out of 516 hotels in Barcelona and it gets rave reviews on TripAdvisor. Here is the hotel’s website.

Next is Condes de Barcelona which is #96 out of 516 hotels, also gets rave reviews on TripAdvisor. Hotel Condes de Barcelona’s website.

We will take a flight from Minneapolis and fly through Amsterdam both directions. After our Paris fiasco, we are hesitant to ever fly through Charles De Gaulle again. One day I might write a blog post about it. But I digress.

We’ll get to Barcelona on a Saturday and I’m really hoping we don’t miss the sardana at the catedral on Sunday at noon. Or perhaps we should take a flight out on Thursday so that in case we have jet lag we won’t sleep through the sardana like we did 5 years ago. That’s a possibility.

Here is our rough itinerary as it is right now.

Day 1 (F) – fly to Amsterdam

Day 2 (Sa) – arrive in Barcelona

Day 3 (Su) – Barcelona- try to see the Sardana at noon in front of the catedral; Picasso museum in the afternoon. (Check website for the Picasso museum to see if it’s still free on Sundays and adjust accordingly)

Day 4 (M) – Barcelona-Gaudi day? (Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, Casa Batlo, La Pedrera)

Day 5 (Tu) – Barcelona- do leftover Gaudi stuff we didn’t get to yesterday because, really, that’s a lot! We’d also like to reserve at least one restaurant for a fabulous meal. I have a few places bookmarked but nothing picked out as of yet. Any recommendations?

Day 6 (W) – to Madrid

Day 7 (Th) – Madrid – day trip to Segovia(weekly flea market on Th from 8 to 3); make reservations at Meson de Candido? (open 1-4:30) or Restaurante Jose Maria? (TA reviewer said lamb is great)

Day 8 (F) – Madrid

Day 9 (Sa) – Madrid – day trip to Toledo (meet ladyofthecakes!! I hope)

Day 10 (Su) – Madrid – Rastro, Retiro, Reina Sofia is free from 1:30 to 7:00 (El Brillante afterwards)

Day 11 (M) – Madrid

Day 12(Tu) – to Málaga (take early to mid afternoon train)

Day 13 (W) – Málaga

Day 14 (Th) – Málaga – day trip to Cordoba

Day 15 (F) – Málaga

Day 16 (Sa) – Málaga

Day 17 (Su) – fly home

There are some things that I want to get done ahead of time. Plane tickets are obvious, but I also want to book hotels and purchase train tickets. There is a post on TipAdvisor that describes how to purchase Renfe train tickets online. It’s very helpful and I’ll be perusing it once again towards the end of this year to freshen up on how it works. There are updates all the time to this post and it’s a great tool. One other thing I need to make reservations for are some restaurants where we’d like to dine. One for sure is Posada de la Villa, which is a favorite of ours. As you can see above, I would also like to reserve a spot at a restaurant in Segovia.

So many little things go into planning a trip. I will be refining this as it gets closer to our departure and this is what I’ve got today just 13.5 months prior to departure. But who’s counting?? Ha ha. I’d love any comments and suggestions for any piece of this trip. Thanks so much!! I’m going to close with some photos of the places we’ll be visiting next year. NEXT year!!! Yay!

La mezquita, Córdoba:

It will be fun to see the progress of Sagrada Familia, Barcelona:

One of my favorite cities in the world and this is a treasured spot – Plaza Mayor – Madrid:

One of my other favorite cities in the world, Toledo:

And, one last one. Teatro Romano, Málaga:

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Tagged as Barcelona, Córdoba, España, La Mezquita, Madrid, Málaga, mezquita córdoba, photography, Sagrada Familia, Segovia, Spain, Teatro Romano, Teatro Romano Málaga, Toledo, travel, viaje

December 10, 2012 · 5:24 pm

Our visit to Córdoba, España

Hubby and I took a day trip to Córdoba while we were in Málaga in March 2011. It was raining so we brought along the umbrellas that we purchased for our May 2010 trip, but never did use that time. This trip we did use them but really, not terribly often. I was glad we had them the morning of our trip to Córdoba as a light rain was falling. Because of the rain, we took a taxi from the train station to La Mezquita instead of walking and getting wet. We were dropped off at the gate to the Patio de los Naranjos(below), found the ticket booth and soon we were inside the ancient place(s) of worship.

La Mezquita is a curious place indeed. I had read about the cathedral within the mosque and marveled at how strange it looked. While discussing our trip with friends in Málaga that evening, I learned that there originally was a Visigothic church on the site before the mezquita was built. So, it went from a church, to a mosque, to a mosque with another church inside. Very curious indeed. I was told that upon seeing the cathedral for the first time Charles V said: “You have destroyed something unique to make something commonplace.”

Once you enter the mosque you get a keen sense of how ancient it is. It smells old which is very hard to describe unless you’ve been in an old building. The famous red and white arches seem to go on forever, they are everywhere you look.

Here is the Mihrab:

A beautiful dome:

Ornate choir loft:

Beautiful ceilings, always remember to look up!!

More beautiful ceilings:

Minaret and Patio de los Naranjos:

La Mezquita from the Roman bridge, in the rain:

Maimonides and me, in the rain – he was a Jewish philosopher and physician who lived in Córdoba 1135-1204:

Don Quijote y Sancho Panza – Taberna Guzmán:

After touring the mezquita, we walked through the old Jewish part of town (La Judería) and found Taberna Guzmán along the way so we stopped for a bit of refreshment and a bite to eat and to get out of the rain. We had a nice meal of tapas and when we left the rain had stopped so we put away those umbrellas. Notice the smile cuz he doesn’t have to use his umbrella ;)

I wasn’t so sure it wouldn’t rain again:

We walked through the old town, found Plaza de las Tendillas (below) and all the fun shopping streets around the plaza too.

We went into a couple of shops but we didn’t buy anything. Afterwards we walked along Paseo de la Victoria and los Jardines de Diego de Rivas, which was very beautiful, on our way back to the train station. What a contrast from the morning. The sun had come out and it was pleasant and now in the 60s. It had turned into a beautiful afternoon. These are the kinds of rainy days that I can deal with, ones that start out with light rain and then clear up for the afternoon. Of course when travelling it’s better if it doesn’t rain at all but we were there at the end of winter after all so good weather isn’t always the norm. We headed back to Málaga, met with friends for drinks and then wandered around Larios street and its environs before heading back to our hotel for our last night in Málaga. Even with the little bit of rain in the morning, it was still a great trip.