Toledo and Cordoba

These are the places you imagine Spain to be like....miles of cobblestoned narrow laneways with 3 storied houses whitewashed or stone with wrought iron balconies enclosing the streets. Vey atmospheric and very Spanish....

and of course the obligiatory Catholic church on every corner keeping (well they did in the past) a tight control on the population.

The further south we go the hotter it gets. It is 6pm and now 37 degrees as it was yesterday so a siesta with a good book and air con is mandatory to keep ones cool so to speak...sightseeing really has to be done in the morning before 2pm if possible.
 A lot of the shops close for a few hours close in the middle of the day and restaurants don´t serve dinner until after 8pm ...a bit of a challenge for me who likes to eat and hit the decks early...

The Mezquita Mosque is the feature here in Cordoba with it´s world heritage listing...unfortunately the Catholic monarchy have ravaged it somewhat by placing a bloody great church in the middle a few hundred years ago..the mosque is about 1000 years old and the islamic mosaics thankfully left by the christian infidels still sparkle after all that time (it helps that they contain 1600 kg of gold).

In Toledo we went to the Alcazar made famous as a propaganda tool by Franco after he relieved the beseiged Nationalists early in the Civil War...he had it rebuilt as a military museum and it presents a very sanitised version of Spanish history ....after 40 years of tight control by the fascists I´m not sure that they are still getting the truth 30 years on...it is all very interesting and the History of the Spanish Civil War I brought with me has been invaluable...

Adios
Kath
PS Still no government after 2 weeks...what a debacle!