Córdoba

We spend hours happily wandering the beautiful streets of Cordoba and discovering its treasures. When we find a nice fountain or courtyard or square we google it and read about it while are there. It’s lovely to explore the city without the usual ‘must see’ list.
We have a great evening in the Mercado Victoria while Ronan listens on his phone to the Ireland beating New Zealand in the Rugby. The Mercado is big food hall with lots of food stalls and communal seating as well as separate bars and restaurants off to the side. It’s only 7 o clock when we are having dinner but the bar next to us is in full swing with music and dancing.
When we leave the Mercado the street is full of motorbikes - a weekend rally has stopped here for the night and there are hundreds of bikes parked up or revving past us. We are home by 8.30 but we feel like we had a wild night out.

Ruby and Colm surprise me in the morning when they decide to forfeit their telly time to come with me to visit Alcazar de old Reyes Cristianos. It turns out to be well worth their time as the formal gardens there are stunning and we have a great time. Inside the Alcazar are huge and incredible roman mosaics on the walls that had been discover in the Corredera square where we in yesterday.
Our afternoon is spent travelling the 500kms back to Cartagena passing grove upon grove of Olive trees.
On our return Ronan meets the Marinero who tells him that the Cartagena tourist Catamaran sank today. One of the hulls cracked off and she went up on her side and sank. Luckily all of the 33 on board were rescued. It is strange that a boat we saw every day full of tourists is now underwater just a mile out from us here.Read more