These Are The Days Of Our Lives

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Trip to Spain Day 4

One of the old cathedrial-mosque doors now closed

Trying to get out of the old city can prove to be a little complicated. Jake went to get the van and it took him an hour to get back. He said that because of where he exited the parking garage he had to travel all over the city’s one-way street in order to get back to our hotel. And after he got back there was still one stop we had to make before we could leave – a wooden, made in Italy, absolutely adorable cat clock where the tail is the pendulum and the eyes go back and forth. The toy store was at the end of our street and we couldn’t help but fall in love with it. Here’s to hoping the kids (OK, Jordan) doesn’t break it.

This was the day we headed over to Cordoba which was the seat of the Caliphate back in the 8^th century clear till the 13^th century. Like in Sevilla, there is a big cathedral there which used to be a mosque, but I will get to that later. When we first arrived in Cordoba we setteled into our hotel, which, again, was more a 1 star hostel. But it had everything we needed. One room had 3 twin beds, 2 of which we shoved together to accommodate all the boys sleeping together, along with dad in the other twin. The girls shared the other room which had a queen bed, a twin, and then the baby bed. Again, it was what we needed and nothing more. And that is how you do a family vacation on a strict budget.

All 6 kiddos posing in the hotel

The girls' room (+ baby)

The boys' room

There is a lot to see in Cordoba and we had a lot of fun. Jake surprised us all by first hiring a horse-drawn carriage to take us around the city. The girls had been asking, but it is kind of expensive, so I kept telling them no. It was a great way to see the different parts of the city and hear a little about the history. There is still a large Islamic influence in the city. They even have a hammam, which is a version of a spa. We went all through the different old sections of the area and you can tell the Arab section by the architecture. The tile patterns are the same as they are today, and the doors are all the old, decorative kind. It was interesting to see how the Arab architecture hasn’t changed in 2000 years.

In front of the carriage

Kids on the carriage

The oldest Catholic church in Cordoba

Beautiful molding

Look closely at the door - its Arab, but the molding has been turned Christian

Just neat

Old, Roman columns

These are the Christmas lights all over the city

OK, this is not a picture of wires, but rather the braces of the balcony

Window molding again

Church tower

Bye, bye horsie. Thanks for the ride.

The next thing we went to see was the cathedral. Unlike the Seville Cathedral, this one didn’t try to change much of the structure. There are arches all through the building with columns every 10-12 feet. The area where the Imam or Caliph would conduct prayers is still there, as well as some of the Arabic script. You can even see the room which was dedicated solely to the Caliph. It is unreachable, however. The chapels they built within are gorgeous. And the door frames were awe inspiring. One really neat thing they have on display there are some of the hand-written books from the bible dating back to the 13^th century. Amazing.

Outside there was a bridge with an arch at one end and an Arab-type building on the other that we walked down to take pictures. It is just so fun to be there and see all the history. But after that the kids had reached their limit, so we headed back to the hotel.

Gotta love the old architecture turned bank

The orange grove courtyard

One of the main gates into the orchard

Same gate a little closer

Samantha and Rachel playing in the fountain in the orchard

Joseph playing in the fountain

Daddy and Jordan playing in the fountain

One of the doors into the cathedral

The intricate design of an Arab door

The archways in the cathedral. The red and white are done by alternating brick and stone

Inside the cathedral

The old clock mechanism from the 1700s

Some artifacts from the days of the mosque

Hand-written books from the New Testament from the 1400s

These are stones that were found that have the names of the workers of the mosque on them (in Arabic)

Looking up one of the domes

Turn this on its side and it is a gold-leafed processional piece still carried today

A statue of one of the marters killed by the Moors at the time of conquest back in year 780 aprox.

I love the ceilings!

This surrounds the area where the Caliph lead the prayers

Overheard an English speaking tour guide say this room was for the caliph, originally, but upon later research, I may have heard tomb, not room. Still not 100% sure

Some of the stain-glass (picture taken by Rachel)

More ceilings

Main chapel

More ceilings

The choir

Entering in the gate to the bridge

The bridge

All of us on the bridge

The building on the opposite side of the bridge

Samantha

The front of the gate

We rested and the little ones took a nap before heading out for dinner. We found a McDonalds not too far and it had a great play area. It wasn’t just a play area, it was a little sports center with a basketball hoop, and obstacle course with a timer, and then the climbing area. The kids had a great time racing each other and themselves. It was a great way to burn off some of the hamburgers they had just eaten.

The climbing structure (can you spot Samantha?)

After dinner we headed back to the old part of the city to walk around. Jake wanted to park where we had parked before, but there were no open spots, so we just kept driving. Pretty soon we found ourselves on the main strip through town and they still had the Christmas market up along with some carnival rides. BINGO! We found a parking garage and headed over. It was a good thing Jake had all the money. I could have gone crazy buying stuff! The kids and I rode a little dragon roller-coaster ride which was a lot of fun. They even gave us each a punching-balloon thing. The kids were boppin’ it everywhere they went. After seeing the Christmas market we went to the plaza to see if we could find an ice cream shop. We didn’t, but we found a lot more rides, some street acts, and a lot of people. It was a fun little walk and the perfect way to end the evening.

Riding the mini roller caoster

Friday, January 6, 2012

Trip to Spain Day 3

When you get breakfast free with your stay at a hotel you never know what you are going to get. Well, at the hotel by the side of the road breakfast consisted of toast and orange juice. I heard complaints about that breakfast for the entire trip. Oh well, it was food and what they didn’t serve us, we ate back in our room – fruit and yogurt.

Our journey for this day was Seville. It was just under a 2 hour drive from where we were. Jake downloaded the maps to his new Kindle Fire and we were able to use that to find the place pretty easy. This is where I need to say that we had a very strict budget for the trip which meant most of the time we stayed in hostels. This particular hostel called itself a B&B, but it was still a hostel. It was right in the heart of the old city, so the streets were narrow and shops everywhere . . . I LOVED IT! Everything was in walking distance and at night the streets were filled with Christmas lights and little Christmas markets. I love Christmas in Europe!

Ok, I thought I had turned this, sorry. Outside our B&B.

The street we were on.

The reception area of our B&B

Jake and kids' room

Mine and babies' room

Beautiful artwork in the lobby

I love mirrors - in the lobby

The main thing we went to see was an old mosque turned Cathedral. After the conquest of the Spaniards over the Moors, the Catholic church rededicated the mosque as a church. They then changed some of the architecture and added a gothic wing onto the existing structure. In fact, it is quite evident on the outside of the building where the old mosque stopped and the “new” church started. The size of the place is breathtaking, as is the ornate nature of the stone sculptures. As I looked around at the intricate carvings in the stone it hit me hard that this is a lost art. And no modern machine can produce the same result as the old hand sculpted stones. Absolutely breathtaking.

The more modern "gothic" side of the cathedral

The mosque portion. Can you see the old dome?

No one today could produce this

Absolutely amazing skill (PS, the real statue is being restored, so we got the gaze upon this replica)

The most memorable part of our visit to the cathedral was climbing the bell tower. It was 17 stories up, but luckily the stairs were replaced by a ramp long ago. It was 34 turns around to the top (as each turn was marked by a number). Along the way there were windows to see from (or probably places to take a rest because it was a long, steep climb) and little rooms filled with history. Once at the top you could see all of Seville. It was such a beautiful view. And the number and size of the bells was really neat to see. I’m really glad they don’t ring the bells while the tower is open. That would be deafening!

The bell tower from the outside

Seville from the bell tower

The roof of the cathedral as seen from the bell tower

More of the cathedral's roof

One of the domes turned turret

From one of the windows along the ramp up the bell tower

Same window, different view

Some of the bells. The bells were hung like this on all 4 sides of the tower

After seeing the church we ran into 2 different street performers on the way back to the car. One was a man painted green, decorated with flowers and standing in a flower pot. The other was a man who had puppets of a man and woman dancing strapped to his back. His legs were the man’s legs and his arms were the woman’s legs. When he bent over he made them dance. It was very fun to watch.

Jackie and the flower guy

Rachel, Jackie and Sammy with the flower guy

The one-man dancing couple

Here you can see the couple

Here is the man with the couple on his back

One last stop before the car was in front of a beautiful, old building that I don’t know the name of. It looks like it was once a palace but is now probably government offices, based on the UN and Spanish flags out front. But the architecture was really neat, so we stopped and got our pictures taken there.

The fam in front of ???

I wish I knew the name of this building. It was beautiful (sorry its on its side, can't figure out how to turn it)

We decided to eat dinner at a sandwich place in the mall we parked the van under while staying in the center of town. It was a horrible decision. The meats on the sandwiches were cold, including the hot dogs we ordered the little ones, and it was expensive. We should have gone to McDonalds (which was next door). One of the difficulties we ran into while in Spain was the time the restaurants opened. 8:30 is bed time for our kids, so fast food was really our only option for dinner.

Jake wanted to take the kids to see a movie after dinner and left me and the 2 little ones in the hotel while he went out. The movie ended up being a dud, but he was able to take the kids down the street a little ways and get some delicious ice cream, which no one thought to bring back to me. Jake and I tried to go out later after the kids were asleep, but by then everything was closed. Oh well, live and learn.

Here are some random pictures from our time in Seville.