Most of them have gone home it seems. True the weather wasn’t as sunny or hot as it had been but it seems the hordes that were here over the weekend have disappeared. It was to our advantage however. We’d intended to return to the Mezquita and found the patio in front relatively deserted, save for the ever present tour groups following fans, umbrellas or whatever comes to hand it seems. The Mezquita is better in the daylight, which plays around the arches and creates beautiful effects. We concentrated on the original mosque, as the later Christian ‘improvements’ still seem to conflict with the simplicity of the original Muslim design.

Walking on the Alcazar, we relished not having to dodge crying kids and frustrated parents, slow moving chains of people with earpieces trying to keep up with their guide and the odd wedding guest.

The Alcazar is mostly about it’s gardens, which are beautiful. Full of water features and formal beds of roses, well tended trees and shrubs and on this occasion two groups of reasonably well behaved schoolchildren. The house interior, though housing Roman artefacts and mosaics isn’t quite as charming.

We ended up in La Juderia again. Not without being verbally accosted by the horse drawn carriage drivers eager for a mug. They’re very persistent and call after you in many languages even when you are fifty metres down the street. Restaurante Almudina looked promising. We were the only guests for quite a while, though the arrival of an Italian tour group livened things up eventually, as they tramped upstairs for a meal, leaving their two female guides sat at a downstairs table, chatting animatedly using hand gestures or so it seemed to me. Our meal was good without being remarkable and we wandered back, under gloomy clouds, threatening rain.

We didn’t venture out until quite late this evening, there had been one heavy shower and it was looking like more when we could no longer dampen our stomachs protestations for more food. The main street down as far as the Mezquita was very sparsely populated, some of the bars and restaurants were closed and we chose Bodegas Mezquita not just because it was open but because it looked friendly. We ordered our new favourite of berenjenas and a couple of desserts. Somewhat akin to a fast food restaurant our aubergine chips arrived very quickly but it was ages before the desserts came. We had to remind them too!! By the time we came out, thunder and lightning was rolling around and we dodged under shop awnings till we got back to the apartment. Who said it didn’t rain here??