Date: Apr 19, 2010
Okay, so it’s not Florence, but instead of a view of the Arno, we have the Mezquita people watching. Our view provided us with the wedding last night, a mass baptismal today, and the most entertaining of all, people trying to avoid drowning in the torrential downpours that have occurred throughout the day. We venture out and then head back when it begins to dump. Everything is close enough to the hotel that we can make it safely before we are soaked. I wonder what the shopkeeper in Sevilla is doing with the dollar store umbrella. Ours is doing quite nicely.
The modified gargoyle outside our room shoots water all the way across the road. That’s when the fun begins. Most people try to avoid getting sprayed by the splash. But we can hear a joyous laughter and we know that some are playing in it. A group of teens stood under it until their brolly broke and they got soaked. That brought out a real chortle from the rest of the group.
It’s nice to be able to retreat to the safety of our room and still be entertained. The rain has been such as to make my Costa Rican twin feel right at home, rain, stop, dump, stop, rain………………
We’re getting a lot of news here about the Icelandic ash in the air. Thousands of flights have been canceled. Gee, we might have to stay longer. Life is such a drag.
One of the things I truly love about just wandering the old town’s streets in places like Cordoba is the incredible lengths to which the residents take pride in their patios. Stemming from the Moorish times these patios lay in wait for passers-by to stop and take notice. Without a continual head swivel left and right, you can miss some truly beautiful touches to the city. These patios lie in the center of a house and provide a beautiful place to rest and relax during the long, hot summers. Since the houses do not have front or back yards, these are the places where people show their love of the beauty which plants and trees bring to their lives. There are usually two door/gates to the courtyard patio. If the first is wooden, then residents often leave it open for you to see within. The second is almost always a shut iron grill work which allows viewing within. Sometimes both doors are a grill work. The entry way is usually tile or other ceramic flooring as is the patio itself. The flowers are arranged in pots and the only open ground will be where trees are planted to provide the needed shade. They even have an annual patio festival here in Cordoba. I’ve provided some pictures of typical patios I found on line for your viewing. In my limited search I didn’t find any of them behind the grill work to truly give you a sense of how it looks from the street. Below are the websites for the patios I found.
http://www.turiscordoba.es/upload/5001/propuestas/propuesta-527/anexos/P1020699.JPG
http://www.turiscordoba.es/upload/5001/propuestas/propuesta-527/anexos/P1020712.JPG
http://www.turiscordoba.es/upload/5001/propuestas/propuesta-527/anexos/P1040910.JPG
On a rather dismal note, there was a gaggle of Spaniards creating a hassle in one of the alleys today, all jostling for that souvenir to remind them of their Cordoba trip – the Hannah Montana bag. Sorry to say we’re not the only culture in decline.
I’ve often wondered about the attraction/repulsion aspect of life. What is there that draws one person while another person would go to great lengths to avoid it. Just after we got married, Carol and I took the kids on an RV trip to the Grand Canyon amongst other places. We went through Death Valley and from the moment we arrived, Carol couldn’t wait to get out of there. Nothing had happened on the trip to trigger such emotions, but she was really anxious until we left the area. At the opposite end of the spectrum is how I feel about Cordoba. It just absolutely draws me. We’ve done nothing spectacular here. We’ve just walked and moseyed, and ambled our way through the streets and alleys for the last three days. That feeling hit its pinnacle this morning when we went into the Mezquita, the old mosque turned into the Cordoba cathedral. We’ve been saving it for last because we could get in early before the hordes descended. So just after 8 a.m. we were waiting at the door with a few other brave souls and when the door opened we entered another world entirely for me.
I’ve no great objection to what the Christians did to the mosque. Every religion tries to put its own personal stamp on conquered icons. The Muslims did the same thing to the great Christian church of Santa Sophia in Istanbul. This Christian/Muslim thing has been going on since Richard and Saladin duked it out. But try as they might, The Spaniards could not erase the indisputable Islamic character of the place. They put up a dome, made a great altar and sanctuary, put chapels all around the inside perimeters, but still it’s an Islamic place of worship. It’s just so vast and it totally envelops and engulfs the attempted Christian stamp. It was the 2nd largest mosque in all the Islamic world. It has over 1,000 pillars of alternating red onyx and white marble, beautiful arches and graceful entry ways mark the entire edifice. There’s a wonderful photo gallery at:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/spain/cordoba-mezquita-photos/
which shows more clearly what it’s like what words cannot describe. All I can say is that I remember being inside as one of those iconic moments in my life. I wondered how I would feel about it so many years later.
I hadn’t even started “My life” when I was last here in 1967. My son hadn’t been born yet, I hadn’t met Carol, I hadn’t even started teaching. I was just a GI thankful he wasn’t fighting in Vietnam, and traveling on leave. Now as I approach the other end of life and certainly more of my life is behind me than ahead of me, it still has that same wondrous effect upon me. I sat there on a bench and just soaked up the joy of the moment. It literally brought tears to my eyes. This is Cordoba to me. More than all the other things we have seen and done here. It’s all been a joy with lots of little moments to enjoy and remember. Both Carol and I like what they’ve done to entertain you as you twist and turn your way around the old historical city. Yesterday I mentioned the street named: “I’m Lost.” Today we found: “You are here,” “Where are you going,” and “You have found a little alley.”
We walked into the new Cordoba with its swank shops and 8 lane avenues and it all seemed like a different world. When I taught school I used to do a lesson where we talked about time travel and then I made the kids write whether they would want to travel forward or back in time and tell me why and what they would expect to find. The vast majority wanted to go forward. They wanted to see what became of their lives. Certainly understandable, but I always enjoyed the ones who wanted to go back and find out where they came from and experience things they had read about. For me, it’s no contest. I’d come back to Cordoba while it was the jewel of the Moorish world. To walk in the Mezquita. I truly think it would have the same affect upon me as it did today. What a wondrous day it was.
Tomorrow it’s to Granada and the Alhambra. More magic awaits.
Carol and Jim
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