At the end of a pleasant afternoon drive, we arrived in Córdoba. We had booked a hotel a couple of kilometers away from the city center, allowing us to conveniently park the car in the hotel’s courtyard and to be at the walking distance from the center of Córdoba.
It was fantastic to take a dip in the hotel’s outdoor pool to refresh ourselves from the dust of our first road trip day. Afterwards, we eagerly went out for an evening walk to the old town of Córdoba.
To reach the old town, we crossed Córdoba’s famous Roman bridge, originally built by the Romans in the first century BC over the Guadalquivir River. This over 2000-year-old bridge has been restored several times. Originally, the bridge was part of the Via Augusta road from Rome to Cádiz. Today, it has been converted into a pedestrian bridge for the enjoyment of tourists.
We naively thought we would walk into town and find somewhere a place to have a dinner, but it wasn’t that easy. The old town was really crowded with tourists. Even though we started looking for a dinner spot before the late Spanish dining time, we definitely struggled to find a place anywhere. We learned the hard way that here you really need to make a reservation if you want to eat at a specific restaurant. However, we were eventually lucky and got a table in a really cozy restaurant with a beautifully decorated courtyard. Afterwards we enjoyed the evening atmosphere of Córdoba by strolling around the city center. Then it was time to walk back to the hotel for getting some shut-eye, as Córdoba’s main sights awaited us the next day.
Our main attraction was the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, located in the heart of the old town. Construction began in 785 AD and lasted for about two hundred years. It has alternated between being the mosque, the church, and finally the cathedral, and fortunately, conquerors did not destroy the former but rather added their own religious symbols. Now it’s an incredible historical monument.
It contains elements from different religions and eras, starting from the stones and columns of Roman temples. Its immense arches and 856 columns made of jasper, marble, onyx, and granite form a giant columned hall, where you can find new details to admire from every corner. Its record size is due to its continuous expansion. Initially, the mosque could accommodate a few thousand people, but eventually, it could hold up to 40,000.
We spent several hours in the Mosque-Cathedral, as the amount of history to see was mindblowing. In the afternoon we still had some time to stroll around the cobblestone streets of the old town of Córdoba and enjoy the atmosphere. Then it was time to hit the road again and head towards Granada.
