When I was researching this trip I discovered that Córdoba is less than an hour away by train. When we talked about taking city breaks to assist with my mental health not taking an utter nose dive on account of the lack of long term travel whilst we saved for sensible grown up things such as a house and retirement and other depressing things you really probably should have sorted by your early-to-mid forties, it was decided that I wasn’t allowed to get distracted by other things outside of the chosen city because that’s how months-long trips are born but guys, a day trip to Córdoba from Sevilla is very much The Done Thing™. Everyone does it. It’s part of the Seville experience and I will die on this hill.

Spanish trains are a bit different to UK trains it seems. In the UK you can pretty much just rock up, buy a ticket and jump on a train to anywhere. You’re not guaranteed to get a seat of course, you might find yourself standing for the entire duration of your journey whilst pressed uncomfortably close to a wild-eyed stranger with a strong odour of McDonalds and cigarettes, but you don’t have to worry about booking anything. With the exception of very local commuter trains you can’t do this in Spain. You need to buy a ticket in advance and choose or be allocated a seat. I’m not sure how far in advance but trains do get booked up so if you want to travel at a very specific time then you’ll need to book ahead which is super easy. If you know you’ll be catching a Renfe train which used to be the monopoly then use the Renfe app. If you want a bit more choice like the Capitalist you are, use the Trainline app.

I had no fucking idea how long we’d need in Córdoba so I panicked and allowed us ten hours when I booked our return train. There are a couple of historic sites in the city I thought we might like to see, add in walking time and the fact we’d probably want to sit down at some point and apply things to our faceholes and yeah, that’s how I got to that. I didn’t take into account that we might be fed up of the sight of historic buildings by then, but hey. We shuffled through Seville whilst it was still dark because in my infinite wisdom I’d booked us onto the 07:42 train. I’m really not sure why Tarrant puts up with me sometimes. I once planned a holiday so ridiculous we were utterly exhausted by the end of it and she made me promise to never do that again but it was only one obnoxiously early start, right? Plus we could nap on the train. Or at least Tarrant could nap. I can’t sleep sitting up, not without cricking my neck and doing several days worth of damage.

Anyway! The one thing we absolutely wanted to see was the Mosque-Cathedral so we pre-booked the 10am visit complete with audioguide. Now this place is definitely a must-see, I’ve never seen anything like it in all the historic buildings I’ve ever put in my eyeholes the world over. So obviously it was a mosque, the Great Mosque of Córdoba if we’re being fussy, first built in 784AD by a chap called Abd al-Rahman I who had fled from Syria when the ruling dynasty he was a part of was overthrown. It was already a big bastard but over the centuries his various descendants expanded it until it was finally capable of holding 40000 worshippers. You can imagine the vastness of it. The last extension was done a bit more cheaply than the rest; the floor changed from marble to red tiles and whilst the arches looked the same as the others, the red and white effect was achieved by painting rather than different brickwork.

In 1236 Ferdinand III showed up as part of the reconquista, whereby the Christian monarchs marched across the Iberian Peninsula reclaiming it from Muslim rule, and turned the Grand Mosque into a place of Christian worship. Chapels were installed around the outside in the typical, lavish way Catholics are wont to do, tombs were put in, the Royal Chapel was built in the Mudéjar style like the Real Alcázar in Seville, with noticeable Islamic elements. Shit started to get real in 1523 however when they started to build a whole, actual cathedral inside the mosque. Literally inside of it. The construction was opposed by the council because they didn’t want their existing chapels to lose importance but it went ahead and it’s predictably stunning. It took decades, they didn’t even start the alterpiece until 1618. I’m just going to pop some photos here rather than boring you with too many more details but this is very much a place you should pop on your to-do list if you’re anywhere within an hour of Córdoba.

As we left we noticed humans milling around at the top of the bell tower, which used to be a minaret. I was well up for climbing up that bad boy. Tarrant was not. The next available tickets were for an hour later though so I bought mine and we wandered down to the river to look at the Roman bridge. There’s a fort at the other end which I believe you can visit but we’d already done a metric fuck tonne of walking today so we found a sunny table at a bar and had a tasty cold beverage before I left Tarrant there and went back to the bell tower. It’s very different from the Giralda, I think they only let 20 people up at a time, it’s narrower and rather then gently sloping ramps you’re tackling 75 nice, wooden steps followed by 75 old, uneven stone steps.

I gasped my way up to the top then became very, very aware of how high up I was, and I didn’t have Tarrant to cling onto. Ohhhh dear fuck. Okay, I was here now, I shall get my photos and retreat to a much saner height. I eyed the bells suspiciously, really really hoping they didn’t start swinging. I’m quite fond of having functioning ear drums, I didn’t want to have to retrieve them along with my shattered nerves from the spire. Even if heights make your bumhole twitch it’s very much worth coming up here for the top view of the Mosque-Cathedral. You can see the original aisles then the fuck off great big cathedral dumped in the middle with the badass dome atop it. This really is a marvel and very deservedly UNESCO.

Something else Córdoba has is the Palace of the Christian Monarchs but you know what? We were pretty much done with that level of cultural touristing right now. We’d seen plenty. Right now what we fancied doing is taking full advantage of the fact that all the bars along the river were sun traps. Beautiful, hot, sweaty sun traps. Give me some of the firey skyball, please! You can’t actually see the river from any of the bars but I think it’s quite clear that what we were after was that sweet, sweet skin damage. I’d even bought a new pair of zip-off trousers for this trip because I am the height of fucking fashion so out came the legs and everything. We settled for Restaurante Califa because that meant I also got to try some of the locally brewed Califa beer.

I believe they have a little shop at their brewery and I was disappointed to learn that it closed at 1pm so I was chuffed we found this place. I had a rubia which is a blonde beer. Tarrant stuck to Cruzcampo because she’s not really a fan of craft beers. Oh and you buy your grifo, or tap beers, by ordering a maceta which is a full glass, or a cañón which is like halfway. I think in Seville it’s a caña though, and as soon as you leave Andalusia it’s different again. As a foreigner I feel like I will stick with “Dos cervezas grandes, por favor!” and just roll with whatever they put in front of me. I feel like this will work Spain-wide.

That was Córdoba then. We did swing by Bodega Guzmán on the way back to the station to try some montilla-moriles, a wine grown in the southern part province of Córdoba, but it’s an… acquired taste shall we say, and it’s no bloody wonder it’s not something you’d casually come across on the shelf at Tesco. We did drink it though, at least I finished mine under the watchful gaze of a bull head stuck to the wall, before heading onwards to see if we could catch an earlier train but they were all booked up. We just caught the train we’d already booked and paid for, considered popping to Bar Alfalfa for a cheeky snack, deciding very much against this on account of the fuck off big queue, then headed back to the apartment for the evening. It had been a long old day and we were both ready to just chill for the evening.

Saturday was sorta kinda a free day, though we knew we wanted to go to some Roman ruins just outside of the city. We weren’t going to be setting any alarms for this, we would get up when we got up, have a leisurely start, then head to the bus station when we were ready. That’s one of the good things about visiting Seville at this time of year I think, we wouldn’t be able to do this in summer as we’d be leaving the flat right in the heat of the day and would probably melt the second we stepped outside. We headed to the bus terminal, jumped on the 11:30 bus to Itálica then spent a good while wandering around the ruins, admiring the mosaics and the ruins of the amphitheatre which, with a capacity of 25000, was one of the biggest in the Roman Empire. It was used for animal hunts in the morning, gladiator battles in the afternoon, and in the intermission there was gymnastics, burlesque, and casual executions of the condemned. Oh, those Romans!

The remains of the small town and the mosaics are brilliant. I do love a mosaic. There’s one of Medusa, smaller than I thought it would be, but definitely our favourite. We wandered around for a bit, took some photos, read some information boards, then headed out to have a quick look at the souvenir stands just outside. We couldn’t really warrant getting another magnet though, we already had more magnets from this city break than most people gather in a year. But y’know, if we find something with Medusa on that isn’t a magnet, like this little mosaic tile here, well, couldn’t say no to that could we? Sold. Oh and also, I didn’t see any information inside but we didn’t read every single thing, but it’s thought that this could have been the place of the Emperor Hadrian. His dad was certainly from here but scholars disagree. Could be here, could be Rome.

We shuffled up the road to a restaurant to grab a beer and some food before heading back into Seville. I had a flamenquín, which is dead pig wrapped in cheese wrapped in breadcrumbs and it is a fucking delight. Apparently it’s from Córdoba so I probably should have had it yesterday but better late than never. It’s going to join the ranks of coxinha and stuff fry jack as culinary joys I fell in love with and may never be able to have again. I’m starting to wonder if the patatas bravas we had in Mallorca will fall under that category too, we’ve ordered it a few times in Seville and Córdoba and it’s just not as good as I remember it being. I’m not saying I’m some manner of Spanish food guru but the shit they’d drizzled on it in Córdoba was pretty much just spicy ketchup and not the salsa brava I’d come to crave.

There were two more things I wanted to put in my eyeholes before we wrapped up our Seville adventure; a flamenco show which we’ll get to soon, and millstones. The streets of Seville are narrow so to protect the walls from the wheels of carts, millstones were embedded into them. I’d been looking out for them and hadn’t seen them at all. I asked on a Facebook page where I specifically might find them. “All over the city” apparently. “Everywhere!” people said. Well where the fuckity fuck are they then?? A bit of Googling later, with a bit of street view stalking, I found a street where I could definitely find them and buggered off on my own because Tarrant had exactly zero desire to battle through Saturday foot traffic to the other side of the town. I did indeed find the ones I was looking for, plus a few more I happened upon on the way, followed by even more as I made my way back towards Tarrant through the warren of streets. Ah. Yes. All over the city then it seems. Well at least I’ve seen them now.

I headed back to meet Tarrant and we found a place to have a drink nearby Tablao Flamenco La Cantaora where we’d booked to see a flamenco show that evening. Rookie error on my part, I’d kept forgetting to book and by the time I got around to it places were sold out, or the only shows they had were 10pm which is basically bedtime for grandma here. I found this place on Get Your Guide, booked it, and we duly rocked up for the very reasonably timed 7pm show. Not all places let you take photos but this place does as long as you don’t use the flash. It’s very small which I really liked, maybe like ten tables.

The show was absolutely fantastic! The guys were very talented, like, that guy could play guitar, that guy could sing, that guy was… really good at clapping… no, I do him a disservice for the lols, he was an excellent dancer. But let’s face it, we’re here for her. The woman was incredible, the passion she injected into every single step. Of course she couldn’t do it without the music but honestly, she was the absolute star of the show. Each section was ended with an enthusiastic, “Olé from the staff whilst we picked our jaws up off the floor for long enough to applaud. There was a fantastic guitar solo from the bloke with enviable quantities of hair, the singer gave us a song, but again, the woman, her dancing was the reason we’ll probably see another flamenco show if we ever come back to Seville. Maybe not here, we’d try another venue to see what that’s like, but you can understand why people love this art form.

And as for coming back to Seville, I don’t see why we wouldn’t. It’s an ideal jump off now we know how easy to navigate Spanish trains are and there are direct flights here from Manchester all year round it seems. We could use it as a gateway to other parts of Andalusia and we’d obviously have to stay a night before a flight the next day. We love the city, it’s a very easy place to be, if you told me I had to live here I wouldn’t be devastated but I’d have to insist on the very best AC money could buy and maybe a pool with a cocktail bar. That was a cracker of a city break though. I’m getting into this.

Jump to “Useful shit to know…”

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Córdoba, Provincia de Córdoba & Sevilla, Provincia de Sevilla, Andalucía, España

Stayed at: Singular Metropol, Sevilla

Useful shit to know…

• I used the Renfe app to book our train tickets. You can just show the QR code on your phone. I would imagine it’s the same with the Trainline app.
• Both Santa Justa in Seville, and Córdoba make you put your bags through a scanner before you can access the platforms.
• There are departure boards which will, eventually, tell you which platform you need to be on. The Trainline app often does this too but I wouldn’t trust it. It told me our train went from platform 1. Santa Justa doesn’t have a platform 1.
• Your ticket will tell you which seat within which carriage you have, and carriage numbers are displayed outside the train doors. Dead easy.

• The Mosque-Cathedral has timed entries which you can book online and show the QR code. It cost €17 each but €4 of that was the optional audioguide. If you want the audioguide on your phone instead it’ll cost €3.50.
• It opens at 10am but you can’t collect your audioguide until 10am from a cabin on the other side of the square. Tarrant waited in the queue for entry whilst I waited to get the audioguides, then I joined her.
• The bell tower is a separate ticket and is also timed. It cost €3. I just bought it on the day and popped back to get there for the timed I’d booked.

• The M-170A bus to Itálica goes from Plaza de Armas, the main bus terminal. It goes from inside, it was platform 20 when we were there but do check the boards. The bus company is Damas, it cost €1.70, we paid the driver and it was cash only. Italica is the last stop. Google Maps seems to have accurate timetables.
• We used Cabify to get back, an app similar to Uber.
• Entry to Conjunto Arqueológico de Itálica is free for EU members, have your passport ready. It’s €1.50 each for the rest of us, cash only.

• We booked our flamenco show tickets through Get Your Guide. You can, of course, book direct with venues but I’d left it quite late so I was just scrolling through Get Your Guide and booked the one I liked the look of the most with them.