Weather: 39º C and Sunny

Breakfast up the road. It was different – we sat down, were asked what type of coffee we wanted and if we wanted orange juice. Breakfast then arrived and included toast, butter and jams in addition to the coffee and OJ. Would have liked some Spanish omelette or a croissant but “asi es la vida”.
Now off through the Jewish quarter to the Mezquita, the Cathedral of Cordoba. On the way we were hoping to go to a Synagogue but this was closed from the 18th to the 30th for some work. Came across some shops of course and an artisans market and workshop. Would go back to those later. No queue at the Mezquita and since up to 20,000 Muslims could pray there when it was a mosque, there were no issues with controlling the entrance of visitors.

Originally the building on this site was a Visigoth Christian church. It was purchased by a Moorish prince whereupon the church was reworked over the years into a mosque. As a mosque, holding an original copy of the Koran and a bone from the arm of the prophet Mohammed, it became a Muslim pilgrimage site second only in importance to Mecca. An unusual feature of the mosque, due to a miscalculation, is that the Mihrab (prayer niche where the Imam stands) did not face east. The mosque had 856 marble columns (mixture of red and blue) all of which exist today. It is about 600m x 400m in size.

When Cordoba was reconquered in the 13th century, the mosque was handed over to the Catholic Church who did not tear it down but instead added Christian features to it. The minaret was also converted into a bell tower. After the reconquista most mosques in Spain were destroyed and had churches built in their place.

Quite odd walking through the columns and arches of the Mosque and coming upon the chapel and choir. More recently, this decade, Spanish Muslims have been lobbying the Catholic Church to allow them to pray in the Mezquita. The Islamic Council of Spain also made a formal request to the Vatican. Both the Vatican and the Spanish church authorities turned down the request. There has been at least one incident of Muslims praying in the Cathedral and being asked to leave. Suspect there will be more incidents in the future.

From there we dined on tapas and beer before heading back to the artisan market. On the way we came upon the Gallery of the Inquisition which we could not resist. This was not quite what we expected and showed all the devices that were used by the Spanish Inquisition to torture those Jews and Muslims who were thought to have not really converted to Christianity as required. One has to wonder about the people (Christians ?) who thought of these devices as well as those who carried out the torture.

Eventually got to the market, did some shopping and headed for the hotel to get out of the heat before going out again in the evening.

Freshened up, or more to the point cooled off, we headed for a restaurant that had been recommended by the hotel. We got there at 845pm and were the only ones there. People started arriving as we were leaving – difficult getting used to this late eating. We had tried this restaurant the night before but they would not serve food at 730pm. Shared a nice salad and then shared a Spanish risotto with red pork meat from the region and also cuttle fish with crayfish rice. Probably should not have got 2 rice dishes in hindsight. Washed it down with a litre of Sangria – the temperature was still 36 degrees.

The waiter was great and had excellent English. When we ordered coffee he gave us a wine/sherry tasting. Not sure why he did this but we were up to it. The first glass was Fino, a very dry pale sherry. It had quite a strong and unusual flavour although you would have picked it as a sherry. The second was Amontillado which starts out as a Fino but matures into a darker colour and has a sweeter taste. The third was a Pedro Ximenez Vino Dulce. Made from Pedro Ximenez grapes it is a red desert wine and was just wonderful – one of the best we have tasted.

On our way back to the hotel we wandered along the river to the Roman bridge and went out to the middle to view the Mezquita and other buildings at night then navigated our way back through the narrow streets of the old town. When we arrived back at the hotel at 1030 it was still 31º C and a forecast for tomorrow of 39º C. Thank goodness it is low humidity – 30%.