Berenjenas with everything..

You may be able to detect from todays featured image, that this morning dawned grey, overcast and rainy. It gets light here at a very sensible time, about 8:15am. The temperature had dropped quite significantly and I actually had to put a light jumper on. Because the weather was so uncertain, we only ventured ten minutes walk away, to the Museum of Fine Arts, a gallery showing works by Julio Romero de Torres and Posado Del Potro, which houses a flamenco exhibit. The Fine Arts museum was frankly overburdened with heavy religious paintings, though we used the elevator, which was made by Schindler, hence ‘Schindlers Lift’…well it made me laugh, which is more than the exhibits did.

Julio Romero de Torres is a different thing altogether. True, there are religious influences in some of his works but in the main they are female studies with flamenco connections. Some of the canvases are stunningly beautiful.

Sadly I wasn’t able to take any photos in the exhibitions but could in the Flamenco museum. This has an interactive part, where you can practice your tap tempo and lots of small LCD screens, some with earpieces to listen to the Flamenco vocals. In the courtyard they were constructing an art piece representing a flamenco dancer. They were expecting quite a crowd judging by the number of water bottles on the table.

It was after 1pm when we left, so we stopped off for a quick beer and a non alcoholic mojito, then we trundled off towards Cordoba. We wandered into the Jewish quarter, searching for a statue of Maimonides, a Jewish philosopher, doctor, teacher and rabbi from the 12th century. Susie wanted her photo taken with him.

We found our way into a market, though it was similar to the one we discovered the other day, in that there was a central seating area, with food outlets on the outside. You chose one, placed your order, sat down and they brought it to your table. I have to confess crisply fried strips of aubergine, drizzled with honey and balsamic vinegar are becoming our fast food of choice. Today was no exception.

By this time a lot of the heavy cloud had lifted and the temperature was climbing rapidly. Time for our siesta, so we wandered back to the apartment. Tonight we are returning to Garum 2.1 (unless their software has had a revision). Tomorrow we leave Cordoba by bus for Seville, will have lunch there and catch a flight to Orly which doesn’t get in till almost 11pm. I doubt I’ll have the energy to write until Friday, when we get back home, so you’ll have to wait for our thoughts on Seville and Cordoba till then…adios..

 

Not chips but deep fried aubergines drizzled in honey…

Even without a knapsack on our back we went wandering again today. We have spent some time in and around the more ‘touristy’ parts of Cordoba, enough to put us off returning to be truthful. However, this morning we discovered more to persuade us that maybe, just maybe, we were being hasty…

We headed for the Alcazar, which we knew closed on Mondays but we thought the exterior was worth a look at least. It was and we’ll try to go again tomorrow. Further on we saw the stables of the Caballerizas, which put on evening horse shows. Sadly, neither of us being interested in things equine, we decided to pass on the opportunity.

We now reached an area of Cordoba called San Basilio. It’s streets are more uniform than much of the old city and when May comes around the patios will be open and resplendent with flowers. That’s May the month by the way, I don’t think Theresa has Cordoba on her list of cities to visit just yet…Stopping just by one of the old gates in the city walls we found a watering hole, with orange juice for Susie and an espresso for me. It was nearing lunch time, and we found Juan Pena, a tapas bar highlighted on our map. A very authentic place, with old tools on the wall and old blokes standing at the bar. Sadly their tapas were very average but it got extra brownie points for atmosphere and very clean loos…

The eagle eyed among you will notice their Google (other search engines are available) translated menu included RAF Tomato. Either this is the next generation of Red Arrow display jets or a secret bomber base in Lincolnshire…

Somehow we ended up back in the Jewish quarter and it’s warren of narrow, meandering streets. By this time we were again running out of steam and before you ask, neither of us had tried an RAF Tomato. The way back to the apartment seems longer with each passing day, either we are aging quickly or my map reading skills are deteriorating rapidly. It’s probably both…

We had a table booked for 8:30 at La Fuente a mere five minute OAP stagger from the front door. It has, rightly so, a reputation for it’s Berenjenas, deep fried aubergine chips, drizzled in balsamic vinegar and honey. They were as delicious as they sound. The other courses were excellent too but the aubergines were outstanding.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings and that the Alcazar charms us into returning..