Weather: 35º C and Sunny

But the other things we wanted to go to were not. Unfortunately we trusted the times printed in the travel guides we have for open hours and although they were the 2013 editions they were in error. It has not been that bad until today and in future we will check with the Tourist Information Centres; the ones we can find anyway.

First off though we headed for our breakfast haunt full of confidence that we would find it without using the map. There are so many little narrow streets that all look alike we had to revert to the map in the end. That’s part of the fun in all the cities/towns that we have been in. We have always stayed in the old parts of the city and they are fun, and at times frustrating, to navigate. We can now understand why Billy has the occasional problem!

We headed across town, using a route we do not think we had previously taken, to a church which was closed. No problem, as we had then planned to go to the Museum of the Courtyards, and it was open. This was 12 courtyards and a garden in the stately home of the Viana’s Marquises. The various courtyards were representative of Roman, Moorish and later era courtyards. Unfortunately a lot of the plants were at the end of their flowering cycle and should have been replaced or at least had some tlc applied.

Cordoba has an annual festival held in early May called the Patio Festival. During this festival some 40-50 homes open up their patios to public viewing when geraniums, carnations, roses etc are in full bloom. Apparently it is one of the biggest events in the city. We were of course not able to visit all these houses and the Museum was our best chance to see something of what it might have been like. We did get a bit nosey as we wandered around the city and took some pictures of patios when the
opportunity presented itself.

We then headed for the main market square which was a disappointment with only half a dozen stalls. Suspect there is another day of the week when it might have been quite interesting. Throughout Cordoba there appear to be quite a few artisan groups who have got together to sell their goods and we imagine the stalls on market day may have reflected some of this craftsmanship.

Anne had to drop into Zara and H&M on the way back to our hotel where we had a rest from the heat until we headed out for an evening walk and dinner. The sun might go down but the heat doesn’t reduce that much. Found a nice place near the Mezquita, had some tapas and back to the hotel. The heat is really wearing us down and we need more than beer, sangria and wine – ie water and air conditioning.

Oh, almost forgot. We came across our first gypsies here. Initially we saw a mother with a baby begging then later we saw the same woman again with a group of about 8
others outside one of the churches.

Also should mention one of the regional delicacies we had at lunch today. It was aubergine cut into sticks and fried in a light batter then served with runny honey – yummy.