The Spanish word agradable is translated as pleasant, but that doesn’t really do the word justice. My experience at a local bar tonight is a pretty good example of the word.
We decided that we wanted to stay in for dinner tonight after a large lunch. Sharon suggested that we get a carry out tortilla from one of the local bars and take it back to our flat for dinner.
I walked to a local bar that advertised tortilla on their tapas menu and asked the waiter if I could buy a whole tortilla for carry out. He assured me that I could so Jim and I sat down to have a beer while they cooked our tortilla. He brought it out to us on a porcelain plate. He asked the we simply bring the plate back to him. That is the definition of agradable.
After touring the Alhambra in the rain on Monday afternoon, we met my friend Jose Antonio for dinner. He had made us a reservation in the Albaicin quarter of Granada with a great view of the Alhambra. Three hours after sitting down to dinner we took these pictures with the Alhambra in the background. Afterwards, the wimps went to bed but Jose Antonio and I went out for a gin and tonic made with a Spanish gin. I need to find a bottle to bring home
In 1999, Kim, the girls and I lived in this house in Sotogrande, Spain. It was an L-shaped, three-bedroom, two-bath house with a pool. All three bedrooms and the living room had glass doors that opened onto the patio where the pool was located. The house was less than 1500 sq ft, but it was very livable. We loved it, but it currently lacks a little charm. I guess someone wanted more space.
This post is a bit out of order because I already posted the signs directing us into the the street with the “do not enter” sign from Saturday. That was a classic spaining where the traffic department changed the traffic patterns but the community did not change their signage accordingly. What should have been a 15 grocery run took over an hour.
Friday presented a great opportunity to get Spain’d but we escaped with only minor inconvenience. This story actually begins on Thursday.
On Thursday, I started a conversation with the taxi driver about the upcoming fair thinking that it started on Saturday. The taxi driver explained that the fair started at midnight Friday. She asked if we were going to the fair and I said that we were leaving town at noon on Saturday. She responded by telling me that we had a few hours. 😂
On Friday, we went to an olive oil tasting where our host again told us we should go to the fair, but the four of us agreed the four Americans who don’t speak the language shouldn’t wade into a sea of thousands of Spaniards at midnight.
About 8pm on Friday, we took a taxi to the north side of downtown for a walk and dinner. We knew that the city was going to be packed down by the river where the fairgrounds are, but we thought this would be safe. We walked through a couple of parks and then found a table outside at a restaurant called Ajo Blanco.
About 10pm we finished dinner and headed toward a taxi stand where we had caught a taxi on Wednesday. As we rounded the corner, our hearts sank! There were ZERO taxis and a HUGE line of people waiting. Jim quickly counted noses in the line and guesstimated that we would wait for an hour for a taxi. It was a two-mile, uphill walk back to the hotel, so we decided to walk to the taxi stand where we had been dropped off two hours before. There we also found zero taxis, but at least there was no line. Within five minutes we were in a taxi headed back to the hotel. Disaster (aka two-mile, uphill walk) averted! 😰
I’ve included a couple of links to YouTube videos about the opening of La Feria de Córdoba.
We got Spain’d today! There was supposed to be a supermarket “just a couple of minutes down the road, “ but we encountered this dilemma — the direction arrows pointed us into a “do not enter” sign. We tried to work our way around but we NEVER found the supermarket. We ended up driving to Lidl which was about 15 minutes away. I should have gone with my gut in the first place. It would have save us time
This photo is part of the essence of Córdoba. In the foreground is the Roman Bridge that dates from the 1st century. This bridge was the only means of crossing the Guadalquivir River until the 1950s, and, in 2003, it was converted to a pedestrian bridge when the Miraflores Bridge was built.
Just above the Roman Bridge is the flat roof of the mosque that was first built in the 8th century and expanded twice over the next 200 years.
Above the flat roof of the mosque rises the cathedral that was built in the middle of the mosque. The cathedral was started in the 13th century and continued for 200 years. Today, this building is know as the Mezquita
Inside the Mezquita, the architecture is fantastic.
Ordering beer and wine in the US can be complicated, and I’ll not even mention trying to order a coffee! It’s common for a craft brewery or tap house to have dozens brews to choose from. It’s also common for the wine list to look more like a book than a list.
For the last two days, Jim and I have simply ordered “cerveza.” No further specification is required and a cold, frothy glass of Pilsner is delivered to the table. Ordering wine can be as simple as specifying “vino tinto” or “vino blanco.” Of course, you can request a wine or beer list, but, as Jim put it “Why? I order a beer and they bring me something good at a fair price. Why make it more complicated?” Well said Jim. Well said.
Casa Juan Marcos Visits Córdoba 