Homeward Bound

Wednesday, 14 July 2010 Alhama de Granada to Cordoba

We said our final farewells to the people at our Spanish class as well as our neighbours and loaded up the car for our short trip to Cordoba. Fed in the route instructions to 'Sofia' and off we set. Spain has recently built a new autovia into Cordoba from the south which 'Sofia' was not aware of. Consequently, she tried to take us off this autovia onto the old highway but we ignored her and she sulked for awhile until we got over the new section and she came back on line. Arriving at Cordoba itself was a real hassle as the access to our hotel that Google mapped out, as well as 'Sofia', was not available because of a street closure. Apparently Cordoba is tarting up the town with a view to winning the title of Europe's cultural capital in 2016. We spent an hour trying to find our way through very narrow streets until we final gave up and parked the car in the street near the closure and walked to the hotel where they gave us instructions as to how to get there. Everything was then ok and we checked in and put the car in the hotel garage where it remains until we leave.

We then went on an orientation walk but not before the necessary refuelling with Ron y Coca Cola y Cerveza at a local bar with a very surly but attentive waiter. After our walk we finished up at the same bar and had some tapas and more fuel this time just cerveza and sangria. Later we walked down to the Puente Romano to which the Cordoba authorities have obviously committed a serious amount of resources to its renovation. We had deliberately left it until dusk thinking the walls of the bridge would be illuminated but alas only the walkway was lit (this bridge is only a pedestrian way similar to the Roman bridge in Prague.



THURSDAY 15 July 2010

The breakfast at Hotel Conquistidor was not as good as most we have had in Spain. The food warmers did not keep the food warm and the scrambled egg and bacon were pretty awful. We were not really impressed with the hotel, although the room was comfortable and there is a nice internal patio - where the smokers have breakfast.

The reception staff were very helpful, but Brian decided that it is the management that is at fault. Their failure to address the problem of finding the hotel due to road works was a serious oversight, especially as there were a number of comments in this regard in the ratings given to the hotel on the net.

So, after a negative breakfast experience, we embarked on a rather overwhelming one in visiting the Grand Cordoba Mesquita. This is a magnificent building which was originally built as a Mosque when Andalucia was a Muslim dominated state. It eventually fell to the Catholics, and the uniqueness of Cordoba is that when the Catholics took over, in what appears to be an early attempt at interdenominational faith, the Catholic Monarchs built a grand Cathedral within the Mosque. According to the Lonely Planet however, the King who authorized the construction recognized that it had not been a good idea. As someone pointed out - if you look at the building simply as the combination of two magnificent pieces of architecture, it is impressive, but if you look at it from the Muslim point of view, the construction of the Cathedral destroyed the form and function of the original Mosque. What was once a light airy building has had much of the light taken away by the construction of Catholic chapel devoted to different saints etc., but the construction of which have enclosed the open aspect of the Mosque.

Both 'churches' however, are magnificent. The Mihrab (altar for want of a better description) is magnificently decorated with delicately coloured mosaics outlined in gold. It was created by Byzantine artisans sent to Muslim Cordoba by a Catholic Monarch.

Afterwards more exploration of the new part of Cordoba and of course more fuel (the rum and cokes here are something else!). That night we found a very old fashioned restaurant where we had our first beef dish in Spain - Ox Tail (rabo de toro) with a delicious salad (ensalada mixta a dish in which the Spanish excel). In Alhama the standard meat diet is pork and chicken although we did not ever see a pig or poultry farm not even a pig or a chicken. Occasionally we were able to find lamb which may well have been goat as we did see a herd of goats in the gorge.



FRIDAY 16th July, 2010   Cordoba to Aranjuez
This morning we visited the old fortress of the Catholic Monarchs following the Christian conquest of Andalucía in 1492. The castle itself was interesting but the gardens were a delight and were the equal to if not better than the Alhambra gardens.

Archaeological excavations in the oldest Plaza in Cordoba - similar to St Marks in Venice, and the one in Madrid - revealed some wonderful Roman mosaics. They were removed and have now been reconstructed and are displayed in the Castle.

We checked out of our hotel and headed off for Aranjuez. This was an easy run on the autovia A4 which took us almost to the door of our luxury hotel in Aranjuez - Hotel Principe de la Paz. This was an old building originally occupied by some famous general and later became a military barracks. It was revamped by NH Hotel Group in 2000 and must have cost a fortune.

Like all the old buildings it has high ceilings and the revamp has made it into a very nice hotel. The décor is very modern Spanish style of dark wood with marble type tiles in the bathrooms. This was the first bathroom that we have had that had both a bath and shower recess. The great thing in the shower recess was that the floor had been made slip proof yet it looked exactly like the wall tiles.

We were intrigued by one of the men on the reception desk who spoke English with an upper class English accent. It turned out that he is bilingual his mother is an English teacher and his father is Spanish.

Everything in Aranjuez was closed when we got there - except for a couple of restaurants that were packed which Brian decided were the remnants of very long Friday lunches.

We eventually found a place that was open with a group of young people in it playing cards. It turned out to be Lebanese - so they probably don't subscribe to the traditional siesta. We chatted for a while with the waitress in a mixture of English and Spanish, but as we have found like most Spanish speakers she wanted to practice her English. Her name is Corinne, and after discovering that Brian wanted a hair cut, she took us around the road to introduce him to the hairdresser she and her family go to. I left him there and when he arrived back at the Hotel, he had a very spunky hair style.

Went back to Corinne's restaurant for dinner and had a great meal of eggplant with a meat and tomato sauce. Then kibbe and chicken kebabs with chips.



Saturday. 17th July 2010   Aranjuez to Madrid


After breakfast we walked around the Jardin Isla - a huge area of land on one side of the castle. It is a very European stylized garden with lots of fountains, most of which we only turned on just as we completed our tour. There is also a large forest section, which is also laid out in a very formal way.


After checking out and then lounging around the hotel until mid afternoon we set off for Madrid. Check in time in Spain is usually 2 or 3 pm so as the trip to Madrid was short we didn't want to arrive too early. As it turned out the AC Coslada Hotel was almost deserted. It is a business type hotel in an industrial zone but very close to both the airport and the office where we had to return the car. The restaurant was closed, presumably because there was little call for the service in a business hotel on Saturday night.

Later that evening the fellow at the reception advised us of the railway station that was only 10 minutes away where we could catch a train into Atocha Station in Madrid. So off we went and were able to have dinner in the very vibrant Saturday night area close to the station. A few drinks and a quick easy meal of the famous ensalada mixta and rabbit and we got back to the hotel for an early night.





Sunday 18th JULY, 2010  Madrid to Seoul

An uneventful day. Returned the car the Citroen agency who then shuttled us to the airport. Got there about 3.15 pm believing we had four hours to kill before our direct flight to Seoul left at 7.10 pm only to find that it was going via Amsterdam and thus was leaving at 5.10 pm. The good news was that we would be on our way 2 hours earlier but the bad news was that we would have to stop in Amsterdam and be packed into the cattle shed they choose to call a Transfer Lounge (positively Orwellian). I can understand why many visitors to Amsterdam, especially European, choose to use ferries, trains, buses or cars to get there.



MONDAY 19th JULY, 2010.

We arrived safely at Incheon Airport after the usual tiring and boring 13 hour flight but then of course had to catch the bus into Seoul which took us about an hour and a half. After checking into our room (upgraded from Superior to De Lux!) we showered and went straight to bed, but only for a couple of hours. Took us ages to find an ATM that would accept our card only to find the bank was about 2 minutes way (of which the reception did not advise us). However, we decided to eat in the hotel having just a sandwich and beers and then coffee - well it wasn't just any sandwich it was a pastrami made from Australian beef. By the way our room TV even has an Australian news channel so we are slowly getting up date on the mad monk's ambition to steer us into the early 19th century - oh boy back to the future with Tony, what a ride that would be.

The upgrade means that the room we have is very comfortable. It has a large king sized bed, a lounge and a desk with connection to the internet. The bathroom is large and has a bath plus show recess, and a toilet with the most amazing menu to choose from. You can wash and blow-dry both the back and front ends, as well as changing the 'pulse' rate and water flow. You can also lower or increase the height of the seat - in fact you almost need a license to drive it!



Tuesday, 20 July, 2010

This morning we went on a half day tour that was included in our stopover package - Buddhist Temple, Royal Palace and the changing of the guard.

Back to the hotel for a siesta and to finish this entry. We are planning to go down town for dinner tonight.

Seoul looks to be a very prosperous city. It reminds us of Singapore and Hong Kong. There are lots of Korean cars on the roads, and we have seen many office blocks or buildings with the names of well known Korean manufacturers on them.

Logging off now back to OZ tomorrow see you then - well some of you!