Cordoba Is Closed On Mondays

Why do I find train travel so stressful ?  Finding the platform, then the carriage and the right seats.  And putting the cases somewhere, why is there never enough room for everyone's case ?  But once we are settled I love the train, and Granada to Cordoba is our first train trip in Spain.

We arrive in Cordoba early Sunday afternoon for a two night stay.  I find it strange that our tour planner has not organised anything for Cordoba, until I start reading the guidebooks on the train.  Cordoba is closed on Mondays.  So we head out straight away when we arrive on Sunday to check out whatever is open and we manage two museums before they close for the day.  The archeology museum is very good, and only 1.50 euro for non EU citizen (free to EU citizens). But we were waved through without paying, thinking perhaps it is free on Sundays.  It was not until later that it dawned on us that the lady must have through we said Austrian, not Australian.

Not only is Monday quiet in Cordoba, it is pissing rain.  So what to do in Cordoba on wet day when most sites are shut - how about the arab baths !!!

Hamman

The hamman is traditionally a place where people gathered to meet, chat and relax.  The Romans were keen on the communal bath houses and the Muslims adopted this very civilised custom.  In Cordoba the original Moorish bath houses have been recovered and now offer a modern version on the ancient bath and massage routine.  I am relived to find that unlike the ancient days, the sessions are now mixed gender, meaning that bathing suits are compulsory.

Tom of course cannot be convinced to join me so he heads off into the pouring rain with his camera while I step inside the bathhouse for my hedonistic pleasure.  Not having done this before I have little idea of what to expect.  I am issued an A4 page of rules, a towel and some plastic slippers for my feet. Despite assuring the attendant I understood fully, si,si, I have no idea when I am supposed to wear the plastic slippers.  The first room is the warm bath room, a large pool under a tiled domed roof with a classic Arabic atmosphere.  There are also hot water pools, cold water pools and a steam room so think with steam, which is pleasantly scented with musk, that you cannot see on first entering.

An Arab bath house (Joanne's was a little more modern.}

I have opted for the package with massage and I am summoned from the pool by the masseuse.  It just adds to the whole atmosphere and mystery that she has very little English.  She points to the hexagonal marble table and I realise I am to climb on (I am think Mid Summer sacrifices again). Not very elegant scrambling onto the marble with my wet body, but I am getting into the swing of it now. Rather than being sacrificed as I feared I am doused in warm water and then scrubbed with a gritty soap.  After this I am covered in a foam, and feeling like an oyster on a Shannon Bennett menu (for not Australian readers think Gordon Ramsey, but pleasant).  This is washed off with the lightest sprinkling of rose scented water which is only just tepid, but somehow seems the exact right temperature.  The whole experience would have been very sensual if I had not been thinking about what a great blog post it would make.

Next to the massage table for a sooting rub down in lavender oil.  The attendant pulls my one piece suit down and by this stage the modest Joanne who walked in the door is not at all concerned at this exposure - by this time I am so Zen she could strip me naked and parade up and down the bathing pools.  After the massage I spend more time between the steam and hot and cold pools, enjoying cups of mint tea in between.  That sweet, thick mint tea that I first enjoyed in Beirut but would never think of drinking at home.  Two hours the experience is over and I leave the baths feeling cleansed and relaxed, but I never did work out when I was supposed to use the plastic slippers.

Thanks to Nicole, Drew, Siena and Jack for this birthday treat.  I know you sent the Euros for use in a tapas bar you recommended, but I think you will agree the bath was worth it.

Mezquita

The Mezquita. 

The Mezquita is the reason for visiting Cordoba, and luckily it is one of the few places open on Mondays.  Mezquita is Spanish for mosque and this one was the biggest and most spectacular outside of Medina during the medieval period.  So we popped in - and wow !  The mosque began as a modest house of prayer for 5000 Muslims, but as the population grew it was expanded over time to hold 40,000 worshipers.  That is more than you get at a Saints game nowadays

After the 'liberation' of Cordoba by Alphonso the Wise the Catholics moved in and built a cathedral smack bang in the middle of it.  Shame.