Cordoba/Malaga/Preigo de Cordoba, Spain

If Granada was hot, then Cordoba is the sun.

We woke up early the morning after our amazing dinner and wind-down in Granada to more cloudless weather. We hit the open road, winding our way around beautiful backroads, through more and more (and more and more) olive trees...my God, we must have seen 10 million of them during the week, that's probably accurate. The drive was great because we would occasionally turn a corner to see a beautiful whitewashed village as such:

Our stop on the way to Cordoba was Preigo de Cordoba (sounds like you are welcome Cordoba). We stopped at the grocery store and grabbed a picnic and had a nice little lunch between a medevil castle and a public fountain (probably 20th century...oh well). Afterwards, we found the real treat of this village/town. The old town was stark white walls and there must have been a city ordinance that required residents to plant hydrangas outside their doors. Very beautiful; the end of the old town brought you too an amazing vista that reminded me of the picnic our French group had between Mirepoint and Toulouse in 2001....oh the memories.

After lunch we said Prego to Preigo and hit the olive trail to Cordoba. I am not sure why, but I have always had a fasination with the Mesquite in Cordoba, formerly a church, converted into a mosque during the Moorish occupancy, and now re-converted back into a catholic church...it is a beautiful mix of Moorish and Christian styles, a true blending of cultures. The hundreds of arches were amazing and were from several different eras including the Byzantine empire (a long time ago), roman times, Moorish times, and the renaissance. They did a great job making the different sized columns uniform.

Here is your blending of cultures...

Right away, I understood why I wanted to visit. Super cool!!!

Since it was a million and three degrees (it was 40 celcius, which is around 105), we took of from Cordoba after wandering around the old town a bit more and made our way close to the airport, which happens to be on the Costa del Soul in Malaga. We stopped, stripped, and swam for about 3 hours before our flight! Erin's first swim in the Med (and topless-optional beach) was a sucess! It was amazing to be back in the Medeterranean after all this time (not including my early April swim in Cadaques (north of Barcelona) with Erin and Linsey in 2005). It was yet again, a terrific conclusion to an amazing bank holiday weekend

Granada, Spain

After the smooth 2 hour drive from Seville to Granada and impeccable navigation through the restricted driving zones of the old town, we made it to our hotel, Casa Morisca, located at the base of the back entry of the Alhambra, the famous Moorish palace constructed by Sultan Mohammed IV among others, and dates back to the 700’s.

We arrived to an extremely hot day (all amplified because we live in Dublin, where it is forbidden to break 70 degrees, even in August), but managed okay, thanks to an amazing tapas bar that still holds the tradition of giving customers their first tapa free with a drink order (beers there are €1.40, or like $62.50;-). They also have fortified wine that made for a stiff glass of sangria at 2pm. Bodegas Castaneda. This place is a must if in Granada. Remember not to bring your camera, I almost got decapitated with a butcher knife for taking these photos.

After lunch, we fought the 105 degree heat and climed up the old town to catch great views of white washed buildings, churches, and a great vista of the Alhambra before heading to the Cathedral in Granada before our Alhambra tour.

After the views of the alahambra, we travelled back down for some ice cream, and a tour of the Catedral (and Capilla Real), which is a beatuiful, MASSIVE church (not quite like the Catedral in Seville, but big) that is a stark white, like all the buildings in Andalucia.

Make sure when buying tickets in advance for the Alhambra, you choose whether you want the morning or afternoon; but beyond that, the tickets specify an entry time to the main palace. I of course didn’t spot this small detail and we had to repurchase tickets (not cheap) to see the palace. It was worth it though, with amazing carvings, arches, and history. The audio guide is worth it (note you can share one with your misses). The pics speak for themselves, what a beautiful place!

The architechure in the complex was stunning, the detailed carvings were the best we have seen in Moorish architecture, and we've seen the best in the last 10 months. Call me uncle Mo.

After making our way back down the hill (BIG HILL), a rinser, and a footrub, we set off for dinner and found this amazing place that has spectacular views of the Alhambra at night….wow!! The name is Carmen de Verde Luna. But first, my Granadese girlfriends...

The food was good too. They cooled you off when you arrive with a complitary martini slushy. We ordered the tasting menu, which was €25 each, but no joke, included basically the whole menu (bread, 6 appetisers, salad, 4 main courses, and desert. Our dinner was accompanied by a couple half liters of house white, which was great with an ice cube on this warm evening. I can't even describe the feeling, an amazing dinner combined with a top 20 view; spectacular spectular!

It was an amazing final dinner of the trip and a great prelude to the views of the Alhambra at night. It was off to Cordoba the following morning for the last (almost) leg of our long weekend.

Seville, Spain

We arrived in Malaga airport around noon on Friday, hopped in the car, and were within seconds lost. They didn’t provide us a map, but thanks to the time out Seville guide, it provided a vague, but detailed enough map to get us on our way to Seville, via Ronda. We made it to Ronda pretty unscathed, driving through the Sierra Nevada national park, passing amazing olive trees, mountains, and vistas. Ronda was a nice stop, a picturesque Peubles Blanos (white village) situated on either side of a 400+ foot gourge….really beautiful. Following Ronda, it was back to the poorly labelled roads, so we didn’t quite find the second town we wanted to see on the way. No bother though, Seville was awaiting. From the second we arrived in Seville, we were hooked. Amazing architechure, beautiful weather (hot but dry…okay, a little too hot), amazing food and night life. After the strolling around Plaza Espana and having our first tapas order written in chalk on the bar in front of us at Los Columns, we were home!

After our first tapas bar, it was on to the next, then the next, and then another. We did our first night of tapas crawling in the Barrio Santa Cruz, where we stayed at Puerto de Seville Hotel, which is very affordable and highly recommended. We were out pretty late that night, nothing a greasy churro didn’t solve the next morning, before making our way to the Real Alcazar, a beautiful depiction of Moorish architecture built in the 13th century, and formally home to Ferdinand and Isabella after the Spanish Requisition. The building itself was absolutely amazing, better than most Moorish architecture in Marrakech even.

After the Real Alcazar, we had a bite for lunch and then wandered towards the river and toured the plaza del toros, a gorgeous bull fighting ring. We unfortunately didn’t see a fight, but the arena was beautiful with striking colors. We picked up a cool poster that will hopefully go up in our house in the Minny when we move back.

After the Toros, we went to the Seville Cathedral, which was built around a former mosque tower (which the Spanish put a peak on the standard Arabic flat-topped tower (see our Marrakech post for an example). The church was great and also had remains of Chirstopher Columbus, proved by DNA tests in 1996. The church was absolutely massive, the ceilings were super high throughout the church and there were countless separate rooms and chapels. The church is said to be more volumous than St. Peter’s (I think we’ll have to go back to Rome and see for ourselves).

We went to the Centro area of the town that night and went to a couple more great tapas places (one was a gastronomic delight called Bar Europa, the other called Los Bodegas was packed with locals and lots of fun). Seville treated us very very well, it’d be worth a trip from the states to visit. The next morning it was off to Granada!