Seville to Córdoba

This morning started out with an adventure.

About two weeks ago Duke asked the Parador where we were staying to call the Parador in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa. He asked them to find out whether the land border between Ceuta and Morocco was open. A few months ago Morocco was allowing no foreigners to enter the country. Then they opened their border to people flying in. The Parador in Ceuta said the land border was not open and they had no idea when it would be open.

Our original itinerary had us taking the ferry across the Straight of Gibraltar and then crossing into Morocco at the land border Since that is no longer an option Duke had to change our plans. He changed the rental car to turn it in at Malaga airport and booked a flight from Malaga to Tangier. He got confirmations for all the changes.

When we arrived by taxi at the Eurocar rental office this morning in Seville the agent told Duke the reservation had been cancelled and it would cost about $500 more to rent the car we had reserved. After quite a bit of discussion, trying to call Eurocar customer service unsuccessfully, and searching for options from other companies we gave up on Eurocar and booked a car through Enterprise. Eventually two hours behind our original plan we were on the road out of Seville heading towards Córdoba

The drive was uneventful and beautiful with orange trees and olive trees in all the fields we passed. We checked into our Parador in Cordoba.

Next we drove into the town center to see the old Roman Bridge and visit the Mezquita-Catedral. The Córdoba Cathedral is built in the center of the former Mosque. The Mosque was massive. The Mosque-Cathedral is one of my favorite sights in Spain.

There didn’t seem to be any restaurants open near our Parador. The front desk did suggest a Chinese Restaurant but we decided to eat in the Parador bar. I had the ham sandwich and everyone else had the hamburgers.