Tuesday 17 September

We had thought that we might have a more relaxed start today, but as we had signed up to an optional tour of Cordoba, we were on the bus as usual at 8.00am. It seemed to us and other participants that the tour start hard been brought forward, but we got no sense from Emma the Tour Director. Cordoba is 140km ENE of Seville so an hour and a half saw us pull up besides the Guadalquivir and the Puente Romann de Cordova. The bridge's foundations are Roman, but the structure has been repaired and improved through history so perhaps not much Roman bridge is left. A favourite spot for pick pockets we are told.

We enter into the Old Town through the Arco del Triunfo (or Puerta del Puente). In the 16th Century the City Fathers decided that the old entrance from the Bridge was looking a bit run down so a new gate was started. As usual there were severe cost overruns and the project was never completed. It would seem that the current arch was only completed in the early 20th Century after the remains of the city wall were demolished. The arch leads on to the Plaza and monument of San Rafael, the city's patron saint.

A short walk brings you to the main reason for the visit, the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba which is another UNESCO Heritage site. A huge, spectacular building that started as a mosque dating from the Moorish invasion in 786, was progressively added to until 991, consecrated as a Catholic church in 1236 following the conquest of Cordoba, and then a "standard" Catholic church constructed within the mosque from 1389 to 1606. A bell tower replaced the minaret. It is without doubt an amazing building. During our visit for some reason it had been decided to display the pasos (big heavy floats carried by up to 30 men) from the local churches that are normally only seen in Easter Monday processions. Without these we would have had a marvellous view of all the columns and an appreciation of the sheer size of the mosque which it is said could accommodate 10,000 people.

After the mosque we see some more of the Old City, including a small synagogue. We have some free time to look at the filigree silver jewellery the city is famous for, grab some lunch and then we return to Seville around 3.30pm.

We had decided that we did not wish to take the optional evening tour of a tapas dinner and horse & carriage ride around Seville. Had quite sufficient tapas, and carriage rides we have done before. Plus we wanted to have some quiet time for ourselves. The pool looked inviting but we opted for time to blog or sort photos and just had something light in the hotel. At 9.45pm we tried to get a taxi outside the hotel to take us down to Plaza Espania which is a spectacular semicircular building in a large park with a canal in a circular shape that people row boats on. We were unsuccessful in finding a taxi by 10.00pm so we called it a night.