A visit to Cordoba with Tom Tom - part 2

The approaches to this building are through very narrow streets where local Gitanas, gypsy ladies, offer visitors sprigs of rosemary and the opportunity to have one’s fortune told in a thick Andaluz accent, just what you need after a heavy Andaluz breakfast! Tourist tip: visit the Mezquita around 2pm, the Gitanas have all gone for lunch, the crowds have thinned and it’s cooler inside the Mosque when the heat of the day is at its highest. Entrance is free into the gardens and 8€ per person to enter the main Cathedral/Mosque, truly an investment.

Other places of historic interest are the Jewish quarter with its Synagogue, various museums, the Roman Bridge, currently under renovation and some craft workshops where the craftsmen and women demonstrate their skills in smithery and leatherware. All of these and more are featured on any tourist map available free at most shops and hotels. Sightseeing is also on offer by taxi, horse drawn carriage or conducted tours on foot. Tourist tip: establish the cost of anything before agreeing to go anywhere. We preferred to walk so as not to miss things of especial interest to us: harder on the feet, easier on the pocket but no limit to the time spent at any location. For an example, read on!

In the early evenings the shopping is excellent away from the tourist areas. Stroll along the river, past the remains of the shallow docks, to an enormous shopping mall near the football stadium. Stroll back through the main shopping streets and refresh yourself at more reasonable cost in one the many squares around the city. You can gaze at the archeological digs which are to be found wherever there are new building developments starting. We found a large El Corte Inglés store dedicated solely to bargains and reductions very near the old city area which “Tomasa–Tomasa” could find with uncanny ease and by shortest route too AND there is street seating outside for hapless escorts to while away their waiting hours with others in a like situation. I shared a bench with a jolly octogenarian who had been waiting nearly two days for his wife to reappear!! On our itinerary was visit to a leather retailer some distance from our hotel. We set off, boldly going where no British idiots had gone before and got ourselves totally lost though not too far from our objective, according to “TomasaTomasa”. We stopped at a bar and asked for directions whereupon a customer called Javier dashed into his butchers shop and produced two detailed maps. He pored over them and giving a whoop showed us just how close we were. He insisted we take the maps, just in case and off we went again. Two streets up we found the shop and in the window was a sign saying, in Spanish, “moved to larger premises” No address, only a mobile phone number. We retraced our steps to find Javier at the bar but he wouldn’t take his maps back, saying “come back and visit us again when you can”. What a gentleman!

Finally, it was our last night in Cordoba. Reception had advised us that the gas company had been working on the local supply all that day but had failed to reconnect anyone at the end of the day and as a consequence there would be no hot water until after our departure the next morning. Luckily we had our travel kettle with us so at least we could perform our ablutions aided by small amounts of boiling water. Amid profuse apologies for the absence of flowing hot water but no discount for the inconvenience, we exhumed Tom–Tom from his temporary sepulcher and pressed the buttons “home” and “shortest route”. What a mistake. Not only were we not able to revisit Latifa for news of the wedding but we found ourselves driving through narrow winding country roads for the best part of 200Ks. In situations such as that you realize just how mountainous Spain is. It may have been the shortest route but it was far from the quickest. An educative end to an informative visit to Cordoba, with Tom-Tom, God bless him!

Useful websites:
www.frommers.com/destinations/cordoba
www.whatcordoba.com
www.travelinginspain.com/cordoba
www.elchurrasco.com
www.cordobaturismo.es
www.booking.com/es
www.spain-hoteles.com
www.infocordoba.com


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