- Audio: All About That Bass
- Video: What's Opera, Doc?
- Location: 50 km Southeast of Córdoba
- Destination: Granada
- Transportation: ALSA long-distance bus
- Condition: Regretting that fish
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Dispatch from the road
Dos siestas in Córdoba
Córdoba was a nice change of pace from Barcelona. Once the capital of the great Caliphate of Al-Andalus, it's a moderate-sized city today. There's much less for a visitor to understand, so I think this would make a good choice for a first visit to Spain.
This doesn't save us from all of our foolish decisions, however. Like how I decided my hotel wasn't all that far of a walk from the train station. Oh, it's a flat less-than-mile through an attractive park and downtown, but with heavy bags and humidity, my comfort gauge dropped considerably from the AVE bliss I started the day with. At least I was in an actual hotel room this time, with my own shower! Air Conditioning! In-room Wi-Fi! (It would turn out to be the only night of 22 to feature this trifecta [edit: until the airline strike].) No matter that the room was tiny: I appreciate that Single Occupancy is even an option.
This schlep coincided with the siesta, so I found myself plowing through a mass of uniformed schoolchildren and their parents. Fun that I got to see that aspect of the culture, though. By the time I checked in and took a mandatory shower, I was concerned that almuerzo would be over. Unfounded: lots of options in the Plaza de las Tendillas, my center-city address. I drank a gazpacho (served in glasses here) and ate a fried ham roll stuffed with ham. Different foods and no Catalan to be seen anywhere. Maybe there's something to this idea that they're different countries.
Tourism in Córdoba is dominated by the Mezquita (mosque), also known as the Cathedral, which was constructed in the center of the mosque. Subtle, guys. Too late to really do it justice, I decided to save it for the morning. What to do until then? The Royal Andalusian Equestrian Demonstration, perhaps? The brochure said 21:00, a few hours away. How about a walk in the old city, then? That's my sort of thing. Like a smaller Barri Gòtic, I had a lovely time wandering and attempting night photos. I ended my stroll at the stables where they said "ocho" and some other things I didn't catch. When they saw me counting out 8 euros, they directed me to a brochure much like my own but with the time at 20:00. Oh. Ocho PM. Dammit, I had outdated info (and I thought they used the 24-hour clock exclusively)! Uh, dinner? A happier time, with more tapas of course!
I get up earlyish and head to old town. The Mezquita is huge, a little absurd, and beautiful. Red-white arches throughout. There's a window in the floor to an archeological site: the mosque was itself built over an earlier Visigoth church. I guess turnabout is fair play? Successive caliphs added wings to the mosque, attempting to match the existing style with varying degrees of success. You do have to look for these differences, however: rectangle + rectangle = rectangle. Try extending a church by planting more churches next to it, and see how silly that looks. There's lots of (Christian) religious art inside, including a nice collection of illuminated texts.
My tour complete, it's time for a snack. I acquire the customary elevensies bocadillo and perch myself by the river Quadalquivir. Here (upstream of Sevilla) it's a peaceful stream, but the heights of the bridge and banks imply it can get much stronger. Or maybe it did in the past. The bridge is low but imposing, dating from Roman times, and provides a fine view back to the Mezquita and the city. A tower at the far side houses the Museum of Al-Andalus Life. It fascinates me that an area of Western Europe was under Muslim control for centuries, and much of this trip is focused on exploring that era. Of course I had to check this out. I had read that it provides a useful counterpoint to what the Church has to say at the Mezquita. Well. If you believe the recordings at the statues and displays, Al-Andalus was basically the greatest period of human history ever, until the Christians came and ruined everything. That may be overstating things a bit. But there were certainly important advances from this era, and I enjoyed seeing things like medical instruments (yikes!), astronomy, and irrigation. (Foreshadowing: I seem to have a thing for plumbing. Yes I can tell you're excited.) Big models of the Mezquita (pre-Cathedral of course) and Granada's Alhambra, plus river and city views from the top of the tower, and that adds up to a nice little museum. A synecdoche* of Córdoba, really.
My time's up but for lunch. I choose poorly: an enormous bland fish filet in (tomato?) sauce. I can barely finish half. Oh well. Not every meal can be amazepants. (Most are!) This time I make the wise decision to hail a taxi to the bus station. It's a fun ride in a nimble little car through tiny streets. ¡Adiós, Córdoba!
* I'd like to thank my book club for this vocabulary lesson ↩
This doesn't save us from all of our foolish decisions, however. Like how I decided my hotel wasn't all that far of a walk from the train station. Oh, it's a flat less-than-mile through an attractive park and downtown, but with heavy bags and humidity, my comfort gauge dropped considerably from the AVE bliss I started the day with. At least I was in an actual hotel room this time, with my own shower! Air Conditioning! In-room Wi-Fi! (It would turn out to be the only night of 22 to feature this trifecta [edit: until the airline strike].) No matter that the room was tiny: I appreciate that Single Occupancy is even an option.
This schlep coincided with the siesta, so I found myself plowing through a mass of uniformed schoolchildren and their parents. Fun that I got to see that aspect of the culture, though. By the time I checked in and took a mandatory shower, I was concerned that almuerzo would be over. Unfounded: lots of options in the Plaza de las Tendillas, my center-city address. I drank a gazpacho (served in glasses here) and ate a fried ham roll stuffed with ham. Different foods and no Catalan to be seen anywhere. Maybe there's something to this idea that they're different countries.
Tourism in Córdoba is dominated by the Mezquita (mosque), also known as the Cathedral, which was constructed in the center of the mosque. Subtle, guys. Too late to really do it justice, I decided to save it for the morning. What to do until then? The Royal Andalusian Equestrian Demonstration, perhaps? The brochure said 21:00, a few hours away. How about a walk in the old city, then? That's my sort of thing. Like a smaller Barri Gòtic, I had a lovely time wandering and attempting night photos. I ended my stroll at the stables where they said "ocho" and some other things I didn't catch. When they saw me counting out 8 euros, they directed me to a brochure much like my own but with the time at 20:00. Oh. Ocho PM. Dammit, I had outdated info (and I thought they used the 24-hour clock exclusively)! Uh, dinner? A happier time, with more tapas of course!
I get up earlyish and head to old town. The Mezquita is huge, a little absurd, and beautiful. Red-white arches throughout. There's a window in the floor to an archeological site: the mosque was itself built over an earlier Visigoth church. I guess turnabout is fair play? Successive caliphs added wings to the mosque, attempting to match the existing style with varying degrees of success. You do have to look for these differences, however: rectangle + rectangle = rectangle. Try extending a church by planting more churches next to it, and see how silly that looks. There's lots of (Christian) religious art inside, including a nice collection of illuminated texts.
My tour complete, it's time for a snack. I acquire the customary elevensies bocadillo and perch myself by the river Quadalquivir. Here (upstream of Sevilla) it's a peaceful stream, but the heights of the bridge and banks imply it can get much stronger. Or maybe it did in the past. The bridge is low but imposing, dating from Roman times, and provides a fine view back to the Mezquita and the city. A tower at the far side houses the Museum of Al-Andalus Life. It fascinates me that an area of Western Europe was under Muslim control for centuries, and much of this trip is focused on exploring that era. Of course I had to check this out. I had read that it provides a useful counterpoint to what the Church has to say at the Mezquita. Well. If you believe the recordings at the statues and displays, Al-Andalus was basically the greatest period of human history ever, until the Christians came and ruined everything. That may be overstating things a bit. But there were certainly important advances from this era, and I enjoyed seeing things like medical instruments (yikes!), astronomy, and irrigation. (Foreshadowing: I seem to have a thing for plumbing. Yes I can tell you're excited.) Big models of the Mezquita (pre-Cathedral of course) and Granada's Alhambra, plus river and city views from the top of the tower, and that adds up to a nice little museum. A synecdoche* of Córdoba, really.
My time's up but for lunch. I choose poorly: an enormous bland fish filet in (tomato?) sauce. I can barely finish half. Oh well. Not every meal can be amazepants. (Most are!) This time I make the wise decision to hail a taxi to the bus station. It's a fun ride in a nimble little car through tiny streets. ¡Adiós, Córdoba!
* I'd like to thank my book club for this vocabulary lesson ↩
Monday, October 20, 2014
A home away from home
 |
| My hotel, in the heart of Córdoba |
A: Oh, I don't know. We just like how it sounds.There's a bidet, though. So that's cool.
Barcelona Summary Post
Here I am sitting in my hotel room in Ronda (city #4), nearly a week after leaving the first city Barcelona, but I'm finally done with those posts! (except pictures) If you've read them previously, there are now a lot of self links to add context.
Chronologically:
Chronologically:
- First Impressions
- Sunday in the Barri Gòtic
- Casa Batlló [placeholder]
- Montserrat
- Sagrada Familia [placeholder]
- Picasso
- Boqueria Market
- Park Güell
Barcelona: Getting Around and Getting Out
This is one hell of a well designed city. Well, the modern part of the city. The old town (Ciutat Vella) including the Barri Gòtic is anything but designed. Of course it has its own charms. Assume I'm talking about the modern zone for the rest of this.
The buildings have chopped corners at intersections, so each one is a little public square. Some have things like fountains in the middle. Crossings are offset a bit from the intersections, too, so turning traffic has some time to see conflicts on the destination street. There are well-used special bus/taxi/scooter/bike lanes too. (Lots of scooters!)
The streets are laid out on a pretty strict grid. In addition to more typical bus lines, there are numbered H and V lines (Horizontal and Vertical?) to help you navigate by coordinate if you're into that sort of thing. (You know I am.) The Metro has a lot of well-connected lines, but the stations are so HOT. Wow. The T never gets this bad in the middle of August - and the outside air has generally been reasonably pleasant here. What's the deal?
Expanding out from the Metro to media distancia, things get more complicated. The Rodalies network is a system of commuter trains to suburbs and more distant destinations. Ferrocarrils is another such network. I could not figure out how exactly they differed. There's also a "Tram" which I never saw in action - possibly a third such system?
The national Spanish railway company Renfe operates the larga distancia trains. Sigh. Maybe Germany spoiled me, but in 2000 I could book a trip from any X to any Y in any small town train station, even including local buses, and even if the trip was outside Germany. In Spain, you apparently can't even get a ticket leaving from the main station in town at the #4-ish station. You have to actually go there. (I'd buy online instead, but that just wasn't working at all.) When I got to the station, the machine wouldn't let me buy the ticket I wanted, so I was afraid they'd sold out! I would have to (shudder) talk to a human. I found that they weren't serving after-today long-distance trains yet, which works on the take-a-number system. And there was a line waiting for the number dispenser to activate for the day. Oy. While I'm waiting for my number to be called, I sketch out alternate plans for the rest of my trip in case I couldn't get to Córdoba on Weds. Eventually I'm called to the window and my train is sold out at the low price (aha) but I can book Turista Plus (like airline "Economy Plus" ?) for 50 additional euros. I'm kicking myself for not booking earlier, but it's worth it at this point.
Actually boarding this train, however, was a dream. The 300 km/h (186 MPH) AVE is the equal of Germany's ICE or France's TGV. Flying across the Spanish countryside (again, I'm thinking of Utah or Nevada) was so smooth that it was actually disorienting to disembark in a different city. How was it possible I had actually traveled somewhere?
The buildings have chopped corners at intersections, so each one is a little public square. Some have things like fountains in the middle. Crossings are offset a bit from the intersections, too, so turning traffic has some time to see conflicts on the destination street. There are well-used special bus/taxi/scooter/bike lanes too. (Lots of scooters!)
The streets are laid out on a pretty strict grid. In addition to more typical bus lines, there are numbered H and V lines (Horizontal and Vertical?) to help you navigate by coordinate if you're into that sort of thing. (You know I am.) The Metro has a lot of well-connected lines, but the stations are so HOT. Wow. The T never gets this bad in the middle of August - and the outside air has generally been reasonably pleasant here. What's the deal?
Expanding out from the Metro to media distancia, things get more complicated. The Rodalies network is a system of commuter trains to suburbs and more distant destinations. Ferrocarrils is another such network. I could not figure out how exactly they differed. There's also a "Tram" which I never saw in action - possibly a third such system?
The national Spanish railway company Renfe operates the larga distancia trains. Sigh. Maybe Germany spoiled me, but in 2000 I could book a trip from any X to any Y in any small town train station, even including local buses, and even if the trip was outside Germany. In Spain, you apparently can't even get a ticket leaving from the main station in town at the #4-ish station. You have to actually go there. (I'd buy online instead, but that just wasn't working at all.) When I got to the station, the machine wouldn't let me buy the ticket I wanted, so I was afraid they'd sold out! I would have to (shudder) talk to a human. I found that they weren't serving after-today long-distance trains yet, which works on the take-a-number system. And there was a line waiting for the number dispenser to activate for the day. Oy. While I'm waiting for my number to be called, I sketch out alternate plans for the rest of my trip in case I couldn't get to Córdoba on Weds. Eventually I'm called to the window and my train is sold out at the low price (aha) but I can book Turista Plus (like airline "Economy Plus" ?) for 50 additional euros. I'm kicking myself for not booking earlier, but it's worth it at this point.
Actually boarding this train, however, was a dream. The 300 km/h (186 MPH) AVE is the equal of Germany's ICE or France's TGV. Flying across the Spanish countryside (again, I'm thinking of Utah or Nevada) was so smooth that it was actually disorienting to disembark in a different city. How was it possible I had actually traveled somewhere?
Late Afternoon at Park Güell
[standard picture disclaimer]
Back to the hostel to rest a bit an then I'm off to spend my remaining daylight at Park Güell. Gaudí designed a planned community on a hill outside the downtown area. As I understand it, the planned community failed but the city kept some of the plans to make it into a park. There are trails, outlooks, and playful structures like fantasy-inspired stairways. There's a paid central Monuments Area but the rest of it is free. I assumed I wouldn't have time for the paid part so I didn't buy a ticket.
No importa: the free portion was a joy. Lovely paths and gorgeous views, though a lot of it was in pretty bad disrepair. Frequent ¡Peligro! signs and closed paths. As I'm about to call it a day, I come across the Tower of Three Crosses, with a lot of people lounging on top. Climbing up to join them was a little hair-raising with the hand rail stopping before the top, but I'm glad I did. I was treated to the best view of the city I'd seen yet, and right at sunset too. I'd been considering skipping the park in favor of rest - so glad I didn't! It helped turned a meh day (that began with train frustrations and Picasso) into a great one.
In desperate need of rest for my feet and phone (I am abusing all of these) I return to my hostel for a shower and laundry. While waiting for my clothes, I found a hammock on the roofdeck so I literally hung out there for a while, gazing upon Casa Batlló. When I'm finally ready to go out for dinner, it's late even for Spain. I have to try a few bars to see if they're still open, but I eventually find a nice spot in the Barri to eat a ridiculous amount of cheese and peppers. On the way I saw a Dunkin' Coffee shop but sadly I didn't have a camera.
Back to the hostel to rest a bit an then I'm off to spend my remaining daylight at Park Güell. Gaudí designed a planned community on a hill outside the downtown area. As I understand it, the planned community failed but the city kept some of the plans to make it into a park. There are trails, outlooks, and playful structures like fantasy-inspired stairways. There's a paid central Monuments Area but the rest of it is free. I assumed I wouldn't have time for the paid part so I didn't buy a ticket.
No importa: the free portion was a joy. Lovely paths and gorgeous views, though a lot of it was in pretty bad disrepair. Frequent ¡Peligro! signs and closed paths. As I'm about to call it a day, I come across the Tower of Three Crosses, with a lot of people lounging on top. Climbing up to join them was a little hair-raising with the hand rail stopping before the top, but I'm glad I did. I was treated to the best view of the city I'd seen yet, and right at sunset too. I'd been considering skipping the park in favor of rest - so glad I didn't! It helped turned a meh day (that began with train frustrations and Picasso) into a great one.
In desperate need of rest for my feet and phone (I am abusing all of these) I return to my hostel for a shower and laundry. While waiting for my clothes, I found a hammock on the roofdeck so I literally hung out there for a while, gazing upon Casa Batlló. When I'm finally ready to go out for dinner, it's late even for Spain. I have to try a few bars to see if they're still open, but I eventually find a nice spot in the Barri to eat a ridiculous amount of cheese and peppers. On the way I saw a Dunkin' Coffee shop but sadly I didn't have a camera.
The Boqueria Market
The Boqueria (butcher?) Market is one of those big halls full of vendors selling meats, fish, produce, candy, pastries, and other goodies, similar to those I went to in Montreal and Cleveland earlier this year. Unlike these, the Boqueria has a serious ham focus. This makes sense considering the Spanish jamón obsession. (Should I write a whole post on ham, or is that not meaty enough?) Various bars at the market too, with assuredly fresh ingredients. I picked one and plopped down next to an amusing Swiss family, choosing a zarzuela, a traditional seafood stew. There was a bit of a challenge prying open the creatures, but it was worth the effort. Add a little pan and an Estrella Damm and I'm a happy man.
On my way out, I'm thinking dessert. Nougat sounded like the thing but the free sample wasn't to my liking. I passed a cafe and realized I hadn't tried a Xocolata amb Xurros yet. Bingo! The chocolate was so rich and thick, and coated the churros nicely. Mmm!
On my way out, I'm thinking dessert. Nougat sounded like the thing but the free sample wasn't to my liking. I passed a cafe and realized I hadn't tried a Xocolata amb Xurros yet. Bingo! The chocolate was so rich and thick, and coated the churros nicely. Mmm!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)