09 October - Cordoba

One of the really nice things about independent travel is the variety of places we get to stay in, and this trip is proving to be just as diverse.  The quirky Hostal in Seville, on a noisy back street, to the modern hotel at La Antilla, to the hill-top monastery in Osuna, and now a family run Hostal right next to the Mesquita in Cordoba.  The original Hostal is one side of an alley, reached by steps, we are in another 'house', the other side of the alley.  We made a stop at Ecija on the way from Osuna, very worthwhile.  It is an interesting place with lots of lovely, but neglected, buildings.  It was the most 'Moorish' of the towns we nave visited in this area.  In fact the towns here have not been exactly what we were expecting.  We thought they would be more like the towns of northern Morocco, like Chefchaouen.  Maybe they were at one time, but christianisation has changed their character.  The 'palacios', built during the Baroque period are probably more striking today.  Walking around the back streets of Ecija, however, we frequently caught glimpses of cool courtyards, some with trees and fountains, through doors slightly ajar.  Soon they would be shut again and these oasis of calm which we associate with the Islamic traditions of both Egypt, but more particularly Morocco, would be hidden from the narrow, dusty street.  We looked into entrances of other open doors and saw beautiful and elaborate tiling, who knows about the rooms beyond, maybe traditional, maybe replaced with IKEA kitchens.
We had a slight 'disagreement' on the way here, over the SatNav!!  We had already had a couple of scary moments, being told to go up a one-way street, in the wrong direction, and being taken into a line of on-coming traffic.  This morning the road map showed a clearly marked minor road linking Osuna with Ecijar, but we were taken back to a motorway, doing two sides of a triangle to get to our destination.  I have always read the maps and followed the road signs when we are travelling, now I have been replaced by this disembodied voice, which, in my opinion, has no common sense.  The situation is compounded by the fact that the road map we have brought is one which we have had for some time, and is out of date.  This is so unlike John, who used to love his maps so I always left the acquisition of them for travelling to him, and has caused me another rant.  Why, when people get SatNavs, do they discard conventional maps?  I don't think they can be replaced.  However, I have to admit the value of the nasty little beasts in getting you (eventually) to exactly where you want to go.  Finding the Hostal here today without the SatNav would have been a disaster, we'd probably still be trying to get to it, instead we nave booked in, parked the car, had lunch and are now have a rest, out of the burning heat of the afternoon sun.