Travel Tuesday

Tuesday served as a long travel day. Our bus left at about 9 AM and except for two brief stops, nothing exciting happened until 3 PM. Our bus stopped in Córdoba for us to explore the Mezquita-Catedral. A mosque was in the city, but after a long time a cathedral was built inside. This happened after the shift to Catholicism within the city.

The Roman Bridge close by to the famous Mosque-Cathedral.

Outside the mosque-cathedral.

The mosque has walls like several of the buildings seen in Segovia and Ávila, and it takes up a large amount of area in the form of a rectangle. Our tour guide pointed out different types of marble used and identified transitions of the building from Islamic to Catholic design in the common styles of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque from the 14th to 18th Centuries.

An archway within the mosque.

The main sanctuary of the cathedral. There are also 54 small chapels along the walls.

The mosque was our main visit. During some free time before continuing on to the destination of our third concert, I located the smallest plaza in the city: the Calleja del Pañuelo. From the mosque, off of a side street is access to a very narrow street that leads past a lone tree to a space with room for no more than 10 people to stand beside a small fountain. I spent a lot of time here despite there being nothing to do; it was serene and relaxing outside of the crowded streets.

The street grows thin at Calleja del Pañuelo, where the smallest plaza in Córdoba can be found.

Córdoba's smallest Plaza with a tiny fountain on the right.

Before leaving Córdoba, I walked around a few of the streets and explored near the riverside with some friends. There are several curious stone structures by the river Guadalquivir. Then it was time for the third hour-long bus ride to reach Ecija, the city for our third concert.

A lone tree between the stone foundations and the river.

One of several stone structures near the Guadalquivir.

The plaza across the street from our performing space.

The exterior of Parroquia Mayor de Santa Cruz, the host of our third concert.

Our third concert was very successful, and it saddens me deeply that there are only two concerts left at this point. The special trait with this concert was that a few secular pieces were left off of the concert, except one (Duerme Negrito, arr. by) which was used as our encore. Dinner followed the concert, and then it was another lengthy bus ride to our hotel in Seville!