Day 4: June 17 (Cordoba - Seville)

We woke up this morning after another night of not sleeping very well.  This is our fourth sleepless night, counting the plane trip.  Our hotel is dark and quiet, so it must be the time difference.  Even under the best circumstances, Neil doesn't sleep well in strange places.  I was extremely disoriented on waking up, barely knowing where I was or what I was supposed to be doing.  We stumbled down past Plaza Tendillas and got some solid food and good coffee at Cafe Vienna.  The tables around us were filled with youngsters who were going through some kind of audition at the music school up the street.

Along the city walls

We did a little more sightseeing after breakfast before checking out of the hotel and heading to Seville.  We walked down to the old wall around the center of town and got outside the wall on a path passing through one of the wall's portals.  The path continued along the outside of the wall, lined with water features and plantings.  It was all very nicely done and, since the wall, provided some shade, comfortably cooler than the already hot surroundings. The path continued on past the wall into large parks in the "ordinary" (not old town) part of Cordova.

We can back through the wall into the Juderia and found the old synagogue.  It was nicely set up with an outer courtyard, entry room with a balcony above, and inner room.  The inscriptions on the walls were uncovered only 150 years ago and since been restored.  The building had been used for many other things over the centuries and its original purpose had been forgotten.

After checking out of the hotel, we walked back to the train station.  Our walk took us through a nice park and took barely 15 minutes now that we knew the lay of the land.  Always being anxious, I got Neil to wait down by the train track earlier than necessary.  The train was right on time and didn't stop long.  It was the same AVE train from Madrid to Seville, which made the one stop in Cordoba.  The leg from Cordoba to Seville was about 40 minutes.  We got to Seville a little before 2:00 pm.  The temperature was about 94 degrees farenheit.  Due to the heat, distance to the hotel, and lack of certainty about the neighborhoods on our path, we took a taxi from the train station.  This was just as well.  If we had walked, we would have gotten lost.  The taxi driver got lost!  He took us off the meter until he found his way.  The driver was very friendly and we talked about lots of things while he was searching for the hotel.  His English was better than our Spanish.

Hotel Itaca Courtyard

The hotel turned out to be centrally located on a small alley near a big plaza. The hotel, Hotel Itaca, was very nicely done, with a very attractive courtyard common area.  The room was comfortable and stylish, located on the level above the street facing out over the alley.  We rested a bit out of the heat.  After settling in, we went out exploring by taking one of the main streets, Calle Tetuan, toward the old section.  The street was lined with stores that had just reopened for the latter part of the day.  The stores were pretty high end, with some high end chains I recognized.  There was an incredible level of shopper activity! I realized that I had lost track of my sunglasses, so I bought a new pair real cheap from an African guy who had his merchandise laid out on a blanket on the street.

Boating at Plaza Espana

Maria Luisa Park

We went through several Plazas, past the City Hall, and to the old Cathedral area.  There were rental horse drawn carriages parked beside the Cathedral.  We noted that, periodically, the police would drive along the main drag, the Avenida de la Constitution.  When the police approached, all of the African street vendors would quickly wrap up their merchandise with their blankets and move off of the sidewalks.  When the police were past, they would reemerge and set up as before.  A big game! After stopping for some ice cream, we headed down to the river.  We saw several people rowing sculls in the late afternoon.  The path along the river was being refurbished and planted with a new arbor.  We continued through to Maria Luisa Park.  The park included a huge Plaza de Espana, with a big lake upon which people were rowing in rented rowboats.  The whole area was built for an Exposition in 1929.  It was very pretty.  We then turned onto a big boulevard called Menendez Pelayo running along the back of the Alcazar.  We struggled a little figuring out where we were on the map.  Many streets intersect at weird angles and the signage isn't all that clear, with some streets spontaneously changing names with no warning. Along our path behind the Alcazar, we walked through the Murillo Gardens.  There was a big statue with a lion on top in honor of Colombus.

Columbus monument

We then wandered into the Barrio Santa Cruz area, which is the old Juderia.  The streets were very narrow and windy.  This isa very popular area, with lots of high end hotels, old palaces, and good bars and restaurants.  It was getting late and we were pretty hungry.  It had been a long, hot day for us.  We had been very ambitious and done a lot of walking.  We settled in for dinner at a small place in the barrio.   Neil tried a tortilla espanola - a potato frittata - smothered in salmorejo - a thicker, more tomato-y gazpacho.  I had a vegetable frittata and gazpacho.  Leaving our dinner, we got very lost wandering through the barrio.  We found our way to a main street and asked directions in the reception of a hotel.  We ended up finding our way home after retracing much of our original path.  Although it was about midnight, there were plenty of people out and about.  The main casualty of all of our walking was my feet.  I had developed blisters and my feet really hurt.