Day 17 - Granada to Cordoba

Gelati: 1, Wine: 2 glasses, Tapas: 0

My hotel went back to being lifeless.  My barricade (there is no chain) was not needed.  When I went to check out I couldn't find any staff member either at my hotel or the sister hotel.  Both places were locked up and reception empty.  I had to unlock the front door of my hotel so I could leave.  Admittedly  it was 9am on a Saturday but still it doesn't seem very professional.

I'm not sure how I'm to go about paying for my stay.  The website for my hotel is down but the one for the sister hotel is still up, so contacted them using an email address I found on that site.  They did swipe my credit card when I checked in so I assume they will use that.  I would have preferred to be presented with a bill and then signed or typed in my pin number and got a receipt.  This all seems rather ad hoc.

I got one of the last 8 seats on the "fast" bus to Cordoba so it was worth the early start.  We got seats that reclined, a little doggy bag with a bottle of water, a packet of biscuits and another of nuts and also an in-drive movie!  Unfortunately, it was a children's movie dubbed into Spanish with Spanish subtitles so I didn't watch it.  Since I can't read on a bus without getting car sick I spent 2 1/2 hours looking at the scenery.  Olive groves on rolling hills get boring long before 2 1/2 hours have passed.

I like Cordoba very much.  For one thing it is warm - we had a top of about 28C.  My hotel here is the best of all the ones I've stayed in (excluding those on the hike).  I have a big room with a double bed, not just a single, and it has its own carved and painted wooden ceiling.  Again, it is an old building with rooms around a patio.  However, this time it is rectangular with only rooms on 3 sides (both short sides and one long side).  All the windows face onto the central patio but have sensible frosted glass so you can keep the curtains open for light while still having having (visual) privacy.  My room is on the ground floor so I can hear everyone in the patio clearly and I assume they can hear me just as easily.

After getting settled in I went out for lunch.  I went to a rather upmarket place that specialises in salmorejo.  They do the traditional style - all by hand, the traditional style - but made with a blender plus a dozen other non-traditional versions.  I have the 'evolutivo' which also had in it  (according to Google translate)  green tea powder, tomato stems (?) and anchovies.  What I got had mushrooms on top and was sprinkled with truffle powder.  Very yum.  For main I had was vegetables (carrots, asparagus, zucchini, eggplant, capsicum) which had been pickled by being lightly salted and then fried in plenty of good olive oil.  This was topped with two slices of fois gras and decorated with 4 graduated blobs and one smear of aioli.

After lunch I wandered around the royal palace.  Part of the battlements have survived and the view from the top was worth the strenuous climb.  The rest of the palace is mainly empty rooms decorated with Roman mosaics that have been found in the area.  There is also an Arab bath complex that was found underneath which you can visit.  The main attraction is the lovely gardens with fountains and fish ponds.   As it is hotter here than in Granada the gardens are in full bloom and the scent of orange blossom is everywhere.

I've decided I need to do some renovations to my house.  I have the fish pond and the waterfall so that's covered.  However, I need to redo the bathroom so I have a mosaic floor.  Something simple.  Just a monochrome with a geometric pattern and perhaps a fish or two.

After seeing the palace I queued up to buy a ticket to see the horse show in the royal stables.  After 15 minutes they appear to have managed to sell tickets to perhaps 5 of the 20 or 30 people in the queue ahead of me.  The show was supposed to start soon and there was a rider on horseback in the street outside.  The horse was getting impatient which she (I think) demonstrated by frothing at the mouth (horse drool is disgusting) and farting a lot.  I decided my need for gelati was greater than my need to see dancing horses and left.

After that I just pottered around until settling on a restaurant for dinner.  It was in the main tourist area but down a little alley and around a corner.  I was the first to arrive (at the ridiculously early hour of 8:10pm) but by 8:30pm almost all the outdoor tables were full.  Us tourists ate dinner while the locals just had tapas.  For my dinner I had the super traditional salmorejo (not enough garlic), stewed bull's tail (I wonder how many times it just comes from a cow not a bull?) and flan (aka creme caramel).

Tomorrow I have to cram in all my Cordoba sightseeing and my bath.  I should have had the extra day here and only the 1 in Granada.