Day 22, Tuesday, 6 October 2009 – In Cordoba it is very hard to get a coffee in the morning – even at 8 am!! Asked Antonio if he could make us a coffee@ 7:45 and he said “No, the machine isn’t warmed up”. So I went to a café we went to yesterday only to find it closed. No problems I thought, Antonio’s machine will be warmed up but no, he hadn’t even turned it on!! They do say that things are different in Spain!
Today we stumbled upon the brothel area which is not far from our hotel, about 2 blocks. At 10:30 am we saw quite a few voluptuous women in doorways displaying their wares! We are almost in shock at this.
We went to the Palace of the Christian Kings and its gardens which are very colourful. The Palace has some beautiful mosaics. We also cross the old Roman Bridge which funnily enough has an alter on it and there are candles lit, just like in the churches. However I notice that whereas the candles in the churches cost anywhere from €5-7, these candles were exactly the same but probably bought from a Target or something like that as they only cost €0.75!! Trust the Catholics to make money from prayer!! (By the way we both were born Catholic).
Bust in the Palace of the Christian Kings
Parapet from the Palace
Roman mosaics from a nearby site (in the Palace).
The beautiful gardens at the Palace….
From there we go to a store and get some jamon, quesa, bread, seafood, pistachios, beer and red wine and have a picnic in the Botanical Gardens – absolutely lovely. Cordoba does not have refrigerated milk nor refrigerated white wine (or at least we couldn’t find it). It is hot today about 34 degrees. Walking around we see many of the patios that Cordoba is famous for. Beautiful spaces usually with tiled walls, fountains and plants. Have noticed that we are both getting a tan. We could not live here, in the old part of the city, it is too claustrophobic and very noisy with a lot of public works going on. On driving out we notice that people are moving out of the city but only to apt blocks. So what is the use of moving if you aren’t getting more land?
The house next to the hotel is vacant and is for sale at a mere €3,000,000. Antonio would like to buy it as it would make for another 30 rooms but it’s too expensive for him. He asks if we can find an investor for him!
Every place that we stay seems to be in the old section of town which is where all the attractions are. This is by sheer coincidence as I didn’t plan it that way.
Day 23, Wednesday, 7 October 2009 – Up at sparrow’s fart to get ready to drive to Toledo. So early, in fact, that Antonio is not even up yet and the place is in complete darkness! We eventually get out the front door and luck is with us as although the garage is locked and we have no key, someone else has to get their car out so opens up the garage. I go back to shut the hotel door and luckily Antonio is now up because we would have forgotten to pay for our parking. We go out the same way we came in, don’t care if it was a one way street or not. Just as perilous going out as coming in!!
Scary time trying to find the road to Toledo (we had thrown out the maps of Cordoba). Eventually located the right road after a deviation or two and one way streets. Freeway journey the whole way – 120 kph traffic and we can’t stop on the freeway as there is no shoulder. Although the sign says 120 it must mean plus or minus 50 as well. Most cars were driving about 170 and if you are in the fast lane they will tailgate something ferocious – at one stage it felt like the car behind me was in the back seat, that’s how close it was. I can’t find a McDonald’s for a coffee or breakfast and the choice of truck stops along the way was terrible.
We finally stopped at a no star hostel for truckies that had reasonable coffee. Later stopped for diesel at a servo – no self serve, the attendant didn’t speak English and Howard doesn’t speak Spanish so his attempts to communicate with him were a dismal failure. I bought what I thought was a sandwich but it was incredibly bad and even Howard commented that it was horrible. Getting back on to the freeway was another scare – initially it seemed like we were heading back to Cordoba as the freeway on/off ramp went for kilometers. We finally found it though, only to realize that once on the freeway the police had set up roadblocks to search thru people’s cars – perhaps looking for drugs? We were very lucky to pass straight through without having all of our luggage rummaged through!
We arrive in Toledo which has streets that are even narrower than Cordoba which is going to prove to be a challenge in the Citroen! Not only are these narrow but they are very hilly and I film a Japanese couple who are having a difficult time getting their Audi up one of the hills. He keeps popping the clutch and traffic is starting to bank up after him. Our hotel is up a hill so we leave the car at the base of it so that we can locate the hotel, Hotel Santa Isabella.
These are narrow streets and a girl from work whose husband is Spanish told me even she isn’t game enough to drive in Toledo!!
Hotel Santa Isabele, a former convent.
They previously advised me that they didn’t have parking but it would appear that they now do and if we leave it in the street it will be subject to 2 hour parking fees. So we decide to park in the garage and off we go to scope out the best way to get the car from where it is to the hotel. Unfortunately the only way is the same way as the Japanese tourist. Howard once again drives to the car park and I am beside him saying things like “you’re doing good, got a lot of space on this side at least 6 inches” etc: We get there and Manuel the receptionist (whose English is composed of very little and I’m sure is inclined to not learn any more) guides us into the carpark. He reminds Howard of Manuel from “Faulty Towers” – he shrugs a lot and chooses whether to speak English or not (depending on which is more advantageous for him). Anyway, the garage has an extremely sharp incline and a very low roof so much so that we will need to use the suspension raising button on the car to get over the incline – did we even know that we had this function?? Manuel did and after conversing and much gesticulating we find the button to 1) raise the car to get it halfway into the garage past the incline and 2) drop the suspension so that we can get down the incline. This takes us all of about 30 minutes and Howard is very nervous. The locals are watching us, maybe it’s a neighbourhood thing to watch the tourists park their car!! Later on we realize that there is another garage that the hotel owns across the street which is drive straight in – no incline at all. Why we didn’t get to park there is beyond me. Once we are parked we are told our room is not ready so we go to the town center to have lunch.
Must say that while we don’t speak Spanish it hasn’t really been a problem while in Spain. The people here have all been really friendly and (in the main) speak enough English to get by.
Afterwards we go to visit the Alcazar only to be told it’s being renovated and to come back next year! Righto, I’ll make my booking at the next internet café!! We get back to the hotel and get our stuff from the car, the guy who had parked next to us is from Richmond and works in Ashburton (where we live) – what a small world, hey? The hotel room is nice and the view from the rooftop terrace is absolutely fantastic, over the rooftops of the surrounding area and of the cathedral.
Later on we went for dinner at Meson la Orza – great value for €53!! We both had the local soup – ham, garlic and egg, followed by lamb (Raegan) and partridge (Howard) with marzipan and chocolate truffles for dessert. Cowboy cocksuckers on the house plus 5 glasses of wine, all for €53 including mineral water and bruschetta! I asked to buy a bottle of wine but am completely misunderstood or maybe I misunderstand.
Beautiful marzipan dessert!
Toledo is supposedly the base of Catholicism in Spain but there is no Bible in our room! The hotel is very nice and is a former convent from the 11th century. Evidently the nuns around here make marzipan and sell it from their front doors – capitalism and Catholicism – they seem to go hand in hand!
We decide not to visit the inside of the Cathedral, not sure if it is the cost of doing so or just maybe we are tired of seeing churches. I think we have gotten the latter. Feel that we probably should have done Toledo as a day trip from Madrid.
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