A visit to Cordoba with Tom Tom - part 1

Monday is a good day to travel! Usually there’s not so much traffic and most of it is local and with 500K to cover it’s better not to have too much competition on the road. So, with all this in mind, we set off for Cordoba at 9am, complete with a borrowed SatNav called Tom–Tom.

On the road to Baza A–92 is a very historic Hostelry and Restaurant called Venta Quemada where we stopped for refreshment, just before the 10am Almuerzo rush. It is clearly signed and easy to find. On entering there is a shopping area where they sell locally baked rustic bread, ham products, cheeses and wines and always have an offer or two to whet the appetite. Pass straight ahead into the bar and turn to the left where there is a wood fired grill on view. They display a variety of meats and will gladly cook your choice over the embers. The main restaurant is famous for its al la carte.

Refreshed, we motored on to the Granada outskirts where Tom–Tom directed us onto the Cordoba/Huelva road until our stomachs told us it was 2pm. We threw caution to the wind and left the main road to find somewhere to eat. Immediately Tom–Tom went berserk. “Turn round at the next opportunity. Petrol station 800 metres ahead. Turn left ahead. Turn round”. We found an excellent place to eat, Mesón Fuente Palma, Benamejí and unplugged our electronic friend. Our waitress and cook was Latifa, she of the delicate hands and flashing dark eyes. The lunch was excellent, the service impeccable and all for 7.50€ each. She regaled us with a visit to the Salon de Banquetes, set out for a wedding party of 600, decorated in the Moorish style with silver thrones for the happy couple and an ornate stand for the wedding cake. At the entrance was a silver and gold carriage (without horses) which was being decorated by her brother. She showed all this with such pride. It was an experience to behold

Tom–Tom got a new lease of life and frantically steered us back en route, but only for a short distance because “TomasaTomasa”, my trusty human navigator, spotted a Garden Centre. Veering off the prescribed route Tom-Tom frantically urged us to turn round, turn right, turn left, turn over and do somersaults. 12 wall pots later we resumed the journey, to Tom–Tom’s relief and mine!

We arrived in Cordoba city at about 4.30pm and diligently tried to follow Tom–Tom’s instructions which, on the whole were fantastic except that, like us, he’d obviously not been there before or if he had, all the turnings had been rearranged since his last visit. We were lost and finally parked up on a pavement and phoned the hotel. “No problem” she said. “Everyone gets lost. Find a taxi and follow it”, which we did as far as the opening of the road we needed which was blocked for school closing time. He left after collecting the fare of 5€. We waited for 5pm and eventually got to the hotel, La Hospedería El Churrasco, through the tightest of narrow streets and put Tom–Tom into hibernation.

Although small, the hotel was of a high standard. We had booked it on the Internet and it proved to be an excellent choice. Our room, comfortable and beautifully decorated, looked onto an interior patio with a functioning deep well by its entrance and a fountain against another wall. The room rate included breakfast and free internet access. We strongly recommend this hospedaría and its restaurant just three doors away. There are cheaper Hostales nearby but we fancied a bit of luxury but they insisted on practicing their English on us.

Cordoba used to be the European cultural and academic center of excellence for hundreds of years, right up to the re–conquest! A place of religious tolerance and fabulous buildings, all of which were extended, refashioned and constantly kept in a good state of repair until the decline of the 15th century and its redevelopments of the 18th and 19th centuries. Archeologists are still finding remains of interesting ancient buildings and trying to identify which periods they are from and what they were. To live and study there one needed to learn Arabic and thousands of scholars from throughout Europe did just that. They studied mathematics, astronomy, medicine and other sciences, physics, mechanics and literature and much more, I’ve no doubt.

Continued next month when we carry on visiting Cordoba

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