Tuesday, August 22nd: Cordoba

For once on our trip the expected obstacle became a blessing. The hostal had abandoned our reservation for some unknown reason; there were no rooms left. The owner of the Hotel Maestre had a good heart and gave us a room in the air-conditioned, well-kept, hotel adjacent to the hostal at the same price.

After nearly 12-hours of feverish sleep and my illness worsening we needed food we could trust - thankfully my favorite rufuge, BurgerKing, set up shop outside the entrance to Cordoba's holy savior, the Mezquita, the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

The mosque was expanded several times over its life as a mosque; it grew to hold 40,000 worshipers. Its striped double-arches on narrow marble columns are what make this building unique and let light deep into the expansive structure.

Before the fall of Granada, the Christians took Cordoba. In the center of this great mosque they erected a fairly typical Christian Cathedral. At least the arrogant act did not destroy a majority of the original building. Rather, now it just looks like a mutant: beautiful here, beautiful there, but together...not so much.

Wimpering from bench to bench, this was all I had energy for in Cordoba; Angelina guided us back to the hotel.