Cordoba and Granada have always been on my radar ever since I visited Sevilla many years ago, so there was no way we were going to leave it out this time. We parked the van in a nice area de autocaravanes about 7.5 km out of the centre – so a pleasant bike ride away. Unfortunately I messed that up the first day by planing a nice ride along the river Gualquivir. Several highways and other roads that bikes could not be on barred the way so we had to turn around and take the not so pretty route along the major traffic route into town.

We started down at the old roman bridge and the Alcazar de los Reyes Catholicos (fortress of the catholic kings) which was strangely unimpressive. It appears that after all the beauty the moorish created, the catholic rulers lived in a rather clumsy castle.

Just around the corner from that is the Mesquita-Cathedral of Cordoba. This used to be a huge mosque in moorish days and was strangely not torn down and the material reused as usual. The Cathedral was build into the mosque instead. It is still a huge building consisting of the endless rows of horseshoe arches of the mosque. In the niches of the outer walls you see the little chapels for the usual collection of saints. In the centre is where you find yourself in something that actually resembles a catholic cathedral and a stunningly beautiful one too.

When you stroll through the hallways there is a lot of beautiful niches in moorish design and event lots of Arabic inscriptions. We were left stunned by the beauty of this building.

The old quarters of town around the cathedral are lovely to stroll through but very touristic. Lots of colours, flowers and little walkways but also tons of restaurants, souvenir shops and pretty little bed and breakfasts Moorish style invite the solvent traveller to stay.