Madrid and Cordoba, Tuesday, March 11, 2025
The wait at passport control in Madrid was just silly: something like an hour and a quarter standing in line foll0wed by the most cursory passport check imaginable. Things went pretty well after that: a shuttle bus brought us from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4, where trains leave for central Madrid. This is certainly the cheapest transportation from an airport to a city center that we’ve experienced: 3 Euros a head!
Our train to Cordoba departed from one of Madrid’s two major train stations, the Puerta de Atocha, and, after navigating some poor signage, we found our way to the separate boarding area for high speed trains. The Spanish national rail service, Renfe, runs some very fast trains. Nathaniel will be pleased to know that his grandparents rode on a Spanish bullet train!
We were prepared for some spotty weather during the first week of our trip. Andalusia normally receives four or five rainy days in March, but people tell us it had already rained for a week. And, sure enough, we arrived in Cordoba to a deluge. We were all drenched, just running to the back of the taxi, grabbing our bags, and dashing into the hotel.
Las Casas de la Juderia de Cordoba is a gorgeous small hotel, made up of five separate houses that have been renovated in a way that retains their original appeal.
By the time we’d had a brief siesta, the rain had stopped and the sun was poking through in patches.
The streets in the old town are narrow, cobbled, and lined with whitewashed houses with flowers spilling out from planters.
We walked around the Mesquita, Cordoba’s mosque / cathedral, and down to the Guadalquivir River. Here are the travelers basking in the sun.
The main bridge across the river stands on Roman foundations. The river was in spate, with whole trees spinning along and the waters overflowing the banks.
We wandered through a number of charming streets east of the cathedral; the pictures give some sense of the scenes that dot the city.
We managed to find a tapas joint that opened by 7:30, a blessing for the jet-lagged. Casa Pepe was terrific. We had tapas-sized portions of baccala, jamon iberico, sardines, eggplant, and croquettes. Sue had sea bass for a main, while the rest of us tried the extraordinary belotta pork. The others drank local wine while I had a palo cortado, an unusual sherry initially aged to become a fino or amontillado but inexplicably loses its veil of flor.
Before heading home we had a glimpse of the Mezquita by night.
