Spain -- Part IV (Córdoba)

On Monday, we headed back to Madrid -- the time of "no kids" now over. It was a long travel day, and so we broke it up a bit with a stop in Córdoba. This is a city in Adalusia in Southern Spain. It has been estimated that in the 10th century and beginning of the 11th century, Córdoba was the most populous city in the world and during these centuries it became the intellectual center of Europe. Today, it has a populous of about 325,000.

Our first stop was the magnificent Roman Bridge. From what we could gather, this was built in the 1st century -- but it faced extensive renovations in 2008.

We then opted for another delightful horse and carriage ride through the city where we saw people dancing, beautiful flowers, and the famous "courtyards" that make this city famous. Apparently there is a courtyard contest every year to see who has the best one. (I now am making plans for JB to make one of these in our future home.)

This particular Monday was a holiday in Spain. Something about a cross, but I never really found out for sure what they were celebrating:

How amazing to just be walking/riding down the road and see ruins like these:

We then visited the Great Mosque of Córdoba. The site was originally a pagan temple, then a Visigothic Christian church, before the Umayyad Moors at first converted the building into a mosque and then built a new mosque on the site. After the Spanish Reconquista, it once again became a Roman Catholic church, with aplateresque cathedral later inserted into the centre of the large Moorish building. Since the early 2000s, Spanish Muslims have lobbied the Roman Catholic church to allow them to pray in the cathedral. The Muslim campaign has been rejected on multiple occasions, by both Spanish Catholic authorities, and the Vatican. In 2010 there was a violent incident over the matter. The building was begun around the year 600 as the Christian Visigothic church of St. Vincent.

We arrived back in Madrid late on the evening of Monday. We ordered Chinese take-out (yum!) and then Dan and Angelica left us at her brother's house and they returned to her parents' apartment across town where their kids were being loved on.

I'll have one more post to fill you in on our last few days in Madrid. Stay tuned!