On our way down to Gibraltar, we decided to stop in Cordoba...home of the famous Great Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba that was converted from a Mosque to a Catholic Cathedral in the 13th century and has some of the most incredible Moorish architecture.
It was absolutely massive and such an interesting combination of architectural styles.
The old city was so cool to explore...it felt different than any other European city that we'd ever been to. There was definitely an Arabian feel mixed with the traditional Spanish vibes and just a dash of Roman influence and we loved it!
We had planned on driving to Seville that evening, but couldn't find a room in Cordoba or Seville for less than $300 (it was a holiday weekend), so we explored until the sun set and drove south towards the coast to our hotel for the night...a gorgeous beach resort on the Andalusian coast. Once settled in, we walked to a cozy little restaurant in the neighboring town.
The following morning, we awoke to pouring rain. We ate breakfast overlooking their beautiful pool and the sea...that place must be incredible on a warm summer day.
Since we didn't go to Seville, we decided to just explore the coast a bit and ended up in Ronda. I'm not sure why I wasn't really expecting autumn colors down there, so it was a lovely surprise to see dots of bright yellow and orange across the rolling hills. Ronda's home to a gorgeous gorge complete with 3 Roman bridges. It was pouring rain so hard and thundering but it was really cool. It was actually pretty crowded...I can't image what it would have been like on a drier day.
It didn't take long for us to venture to a quieter part of town. Of course, this included an old church complete with a rooftop terrace accessed by a tiny stone staircase tucked away. We had it all to ourselves and enjoyed the surrounding views and moment of sunshine.
We found our first Kebab in Spain and explored in the pouring rain which gradually let up as we continued on to Gibraltar.
We drove along the coast where we could see Africa on the other side. The border crossing was slow moving, but within about 20 minutes, we were in Gibraltar! We drove directly to the gondola that takes you up to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, but it was closed due to windy conditions. I desperately wanted to go up and see the monkeys and explore, so we opted to get a hotel room there and would try it again in the morning. We explored the botanical gardens before grabbing dinner and settling in for the evening.
We are the ultimate tourists...
The following morning, the gondola was still closed :( We cut our losses and made our way back north, along the coast for a bit, to Granada. We wound our way through the narrowest streets to the old town and wandered around for the day. We absolutely LOVED Granada...I wouldn't mind going back someday. There are all sorts of little hidden gardens and atriums tucked away...it smelled so good and felt so calm and peaceful and happy. It just had such a great energy, and though cold and rainy, there were tons of people out wandering the streets, eating at the cafes, and in all of the shops. It was such a beautiful city that we could have stayed for days.
There was something happening that day so we could get into all of the museums and historic buildings for free, which was awesome! Our first stop was an 11th century Arabian bathhouse. We were fascinated by the decorative cutouts in the ceiling allowing light to filter in.
I feel like I look super creepy in this picture, but I like it anyway...
How do you suppose I got those shots of the ceiling?
"Granada" actually means "Pomegranate" and we noticed little homages to the delicious fruit everywhere...in the mosaics on the streets, traffic barricades, even the railings in a really cool old church were in the shape of Pomegranates.
One of my favorite shops in town was actually a perfumery and Museum of Fragrance. Not usually something I'm in to, the music and aroma wafting out from it's gates lured us in. Plus, the building itself was so cool.
From there, we grabbed gelato and wandered to a quieter part of town to explore.
...an actual spice market! As someone who consumes gallons of tea and pounds of ginger and turmeric a month, I was very excited to see this.
After breakfast, we hit the road back north to Madrid to catch our flight to Mallorca! All the details from our time there will be up soon!