Grand Driving Tour of Spain -- 2025 Edition (Cordoba to Start)

In 2023, Carol and I visited Madrid, Toledo, El Escorial, Avila, Salamanca, Zamora, Astorga, Vallllodid, Medina del Campo, Ribera del Duero wine country, Segovia, Villalba del Sierra, Ciudad Encanta, Cuenca, Ventana del Diablo, Albarracin, and Valencia.

We decided we've given short shrift to the Southwest of Spain, and, since we would be close to our favorite region of Spain, Andalusia, we would go there as well.

So we are off on a 17 day Grand Driving Tour of Spain.  Being a grand driving tour, we naturally started with a train ride -- just like in 2023.  We flew into Madrid, taxied to the train station, and caught an early train to Cordoba.

As on many trips, if we are staying more than one night in a city/town, we book a VRBO, but if we are spending just one night, we book a hotel room

After we got into our VRBO, Caro was feeling hammered by jet lag.  I decided to talk a walk.  I got lucky, booking an apartment very close to the main attraction of Cordoba, La Mezquita (more on that in a later post).  We were in the Jewish quarter, which is a delightful jumble of medieval alleys and streets.

My first stop was the iconic Calle de las Flores, a narrow pedestrian street with lots of flower baskets that, with the Mezquita's Bell Tower as a backdrop, provides one of the best photos in Cordoba.

It's a short stroll from the Calle de las Flores to the Mezquita.  The Patio de los Naranjos (Patio of the Oranges) is a massive courtyard that is open and free to enter.  I wandered around the patio, people watching and taking in the beautiful carvings, panels, and beams from the 10th century.  The main attraction is the former minaret that is a Bell Tower, built overtop the minaret around 1600.

From there I went out the other side of the Patio, along the massive wall with some stunning Moorish doors. 

I went down to the Renaissance arch by the Roman bridge.  Oddly, I don't remember the big arch from my previous two trips to Cordoba (2001, 2016), but I crossed over the Roman bridge, vowing to come back to the Calahorra Tower with Carol after our next day's visit to the Mezquita.

I then wandered up to the Jewish Quarter, which is a name for the best parts of Cordoba to wander, passed the Synagogue (closed by the time I got there), wandered through the historic Almodovar Gate, and around the city walls, taking in the statues to some of Cordoba's most important citizens.

I was pretty happy -- wandering around in one of my favorite cities, looking forward to what was to come in the next few days (foreshadowing!). 

Well, every so often, the blog program flips the order of the photos that I want to post. . .as it did with this.  When that happens, putting them in the right order is extremely time consuming, so I don't take the time to do so.  So here are pictures of my afternoon walk. . .just imagine I did it backwards from how I actually walked.

The original city walls and water

feature just outside the Puerta de

Almodovar, the best preserved

of the seven original city gates.

And the aforementioned Puerta de Almodovar.

Seneca, one of the three

statues of great Cordobians. 

The Roman bridge.  The foundations

are original, from the first century.

   The arches are from the 16th century.

The Calahorra Tower, a fortified gate

built in the 14th century to protect

the city from the Moors to the south.

A statue on the Roman bridge, and

a look back at La Mezquita.

The best picture I've ever taken of

a black-crowned night heron. Also

the only picture I've taken of one.

The Moorish arches on the outside

of the Mezquita are as stunning

the arches on the inside. 

Quite the door.

The Bell Tower was built

over the remains of the

original Muslim minaret.

The Patio de los Naranjos,

with the Bell Tower.

A Muslim "keyhole"

entrance into La Mezquita.

The top of the Mezquita from

the Patio of the oranges.

The Bell Tower taken from

the Calle de las Flores.

Iconic.

Dog in the tiny plaza off the 

Calle de las Flores.

And one more picture from

the street of flowers for

good meaure!

A random photo in a city, region, and

country that has a huge number

of fountains.   Not all are historical,

but all are enjoyable.