September 6, 2019

September 6, 2019

Instead of spending the day on the beach in the Costa del Sol, I convinced some of our travelling companions to take a day-trip. From the promenade we walked uphill to the central square of Torremolinos, where we caught the local commuter rail into Malaga. There we boarded the high-speed train inland. The terrain we passed was almost entirely a sea of Olive Trees. They grow well in this Arizona-like environment because they don’t need to be irrigated. Olive Trees have very deep roots.

After an hour we pull into the city of Cordoba and take a taxi to the Old Town. Cordoba was the capital of the Moorish Caliphate of Andalusia. The Caliphs built an enormous mosque here. Its beauty was even appreciated by the Catholics who retook the city in 1236. Instead of destroying it as had been done in most cities, they built a church in the center but left most of the surrounding mosque intact.

We first enter the Courtyard of the Orange Trees to buy our tickets. As we pass into the Mosque-Cathedral we are greeted with a dimly lit, vast forest of two-toned arches under a low roof. In Medieval times, thousands of Muslim worshipers would fill this space praying to Allah on their rug. A section of the flooring has been taken up to expose the mosaic floor of the Visigoth church upon which the Mosque had been built.

While much of the interior mosque has been preserved, the periphery is filled with individual chapels. After breezing through the Treasury Room, we entered the central core in which a Renaissance Church was built in the 16th century. The transition is a shock to the senses, changing from dark to light, from horizontal to vertical, and from subdued elegance to explicit decoration. Our group spent a lot of time in the Mahogany Choir Stalls looking at the carvings. In particular we were interested in the saints' portrayals. The cause of their martyrdom was illustrated on each panel.

After spending a couple hours admiring this very cool World Heritage Site, we had lunch in a nearby courtyard Tapas Bar. We then walked the narrow lanes of the Jewish quarter ending in a tiny medieval synagogue that could have passed for a Moorish building except for the subdued Stars of David in the design.

We then walked along a surviving section of the Old City Walls down to the river. We toured the ruins of the Baths of the Caliph and then walked past the castle-like exterior of the Alcazar (Moorish Palace) to the Roman Bridge that spans the local river. On the far side is a fortified gate. Along the river is an old water wheel that was used to raise river water to feed the gardens and baths of the Caliph.

In the late afternoon, we reverse our journey, returning to Torremolinos. We join our tour group for a buffet dinner in the hotel. Afterwards we explore the view from the penthouse bar. Despite being totally public, each sliver of beach is filled with lounge chairs and umbrellas that have to be rented for the day.