We rented a car to head to the town of Córdoba, about an hour and a half from Seville. It was the capital before the Christians took the land back from the Muslims, and we wanted to see the famous mezquita that had been mashed up with a catholic cathedral.
Getting out of Seville was crazy, but Bill handled the narrow roads and one way streets well. We passed through rolling fields of farmland, including huge fields of sunflowers as far as the eye could see. Apparently, sunflower oil is popular for Spanish cooking, so it’s a major cash crop.
The mosque was incredible. It was so spacious inside, it felt like the whole town could fit for prayers.
It was especially interesting to see the areas where parts of the mosque had been torn down and replaced with a cathedral. The juxtaposition of religious iconography felt surreal.
We had empanadas in town, and cooled off on the hot walk back to the car with a smoothie. The outside of the Mezquita was pretty too.
We decided to cool off and beat the Andalusian heat by heading into the mountains for a swim. We took a different route on the way back from Córdoba, but there were still sunflowers. We passed a really cool looking medieval castle that I wished I could visit.
The swimming hole was an artificial beach created by damning a river that ran through the tiny town of San Nicolas. It went under an old Roman bridge. There were a lot of locals there swimming, but not so many that it felt crowded. Driving through the town, we could see why people talk about the white towns in the hills of Spain – everything was painted white. The town was closed for siesta except for a bar by the water.
We came home tired and happy after our day of adventure.