CÓRDOBA

Although the weather was somewhat iffy in the morning (little chilly and rainy), I joined the CIEE program in a day trip to Córdoba last Sunday. I had to wake up earlier than usual, considering the bus left at 9am. After about 1 ½ hours of driving, we made one stop in the city of Montilla, where there is the oldest wine warehouse in Andalucia called Alvear. There we got a tour of the wine making process, from start to finish and ended with a little winetasting of their most famous sherry, known as Amontillado. I don’t know if it was the fact that it was still 11 in the morning or I’m just not a wine person, but I was certainly not a big fan of the 3 samples we tasted.

After that, we continued our little journey to Córdoba. We had a little free time before we had to meet with the group, and I had the chance to go into a lot of the little souvenir shops and stop into a café to get coffee and a waffle. I wish I would have had more time to explore on my own, but then we had to meet back with the group (it had started pouring rain at this point). We waited until the rain let up a little and then went on a little walking tour of one of the oldest and most famous parts of the city, known as the Judería (the Jewish quarters).
Next we went to visit the inside of La Mezquita (Muslim temple of Córdoba)... the best part of the trip. It is so huge that with all of the arches it really looks infinite, like in a mirror maze. I cannot even put into words how beautiful it was, and I know my pictures don’t do it justice either… it’s the most incredible building I have ever seen. It was also so impressive to see the distinct contrast between the Arabic architecture right next to Christian part added to the mosque (Christians conquered the city in 1236). Here are a few of the pictures I took though… Enjoy!