Today we just ate a breakfast of some of the snacks that Anita has accumulated along with coffee or tea made from hot water from the lobby carried up in our thermos.
It was raining lightly this morning. Yesterday was the warmest day we had had so far - about 21C and sunny in the afternoon.
Luckily we have our rain shells and umbrellas so a little rain doesn’t bother us. About 10 am we walked down to the Mezquita and bought our entrance tickets for 10 euros each.
Originally, the Visigoths built a Christian church on the Mezquita site in the 6th century. In the late 700s, the local Moorish leader bought the site and started construction on a mosque. Several additions were constructed over the next few centuries until, at over 14,000 square metres, it was the largest mosque in the world. The ceiling is only about 10 metres high, making a huge horizontal space. Originally there were over 1,200 slender columns with double arches for strength holding up the roof. Now, since the cathedral was built, 896 columns are left. The forest of columns with red and white striped double stone arches is an impressive sight.
After the Reconquest, the Christians worshipped in the Mezquita for about 300 years without making many changes. However, around 1600 it was decided that a cathedral should be constructed right in the middle of the mosque. At least they didn’t tear the whole thing down, which was the case in many other places. It’s very strange to walk through a low ceilinged mosque, meant to be an intimate prayer space and suddenly enter a big cathedral with 130 foot ceilings, meant to be awe inspiring to people in the presence of God.
After a couple of hours in the Mezquita, we walked around searching out some restaurants. We stopped at the Santos bar across from the Mezquita to share a potato pastry tapa. It was just the right snack for only 2.30 euros. As we ate, we chatted with a couple of other tourists from Maine and Connecticut. When we said we were Canadians, they said “Sorry, we’d get rid of Trump if we could”. They think very highly of Trudeau, perhaps more than many Canadians do. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard these sentiments from travelling Americans. Most of them seem very embarrassed.
The afternoon was still cloudy but it’s not really cold - probably about 17C. We like a little restaurant down the street so much we went there again. We each chose one of the “menu del dia” options. For a big “stirred mushroom appetizer”, main course of meatballs or pork slices with deep fried potatoes and dessert of flan with whipped cream and chocolate, we each paid 10 euros. When we paid, we discovered that the price included the generous glasses of beer and white wine that we had too. Good deal.
Plus, in Spain there is little or no tipping. No smarmy waiter ever says, “Hi, I’ll be your server today”. All of the waiters are professionals who work on whatever needs to be done. Restaurants are run like any other business where the staff can expect to receive a wage that they can live on from the management. More of that attitude in Canada would be a good thing.
Until it started to get dark, we wandered through the narrow streets and then across the river and back on the Roman bridge. Now Anita is catching up on the laundry and I’m catching up on the bookkeeping so we’ll be ready for another day.
It was raining lightly this morning. Yesterday was the warmest day we had had so far - about 21C and sunny in the afternoon.
Luckily we have our rain shells and umbrellas so a little rain doesn’t bother us. About 10 am we walked down to the Mezquita and bought our entrance tickets for 10 euros each.
Originally, the Visigoths built a Christian church on the Mezquita site in the 6th century. In the late 700s, the local Moorish leader bought the site and started construction on a mosque. Several additions were constructed over the next few centuries until, at over 14,000 square metres, it was the largest mosque in the world. The ceiling is only about 10 metres high, making a huge horizontal space. Originally there were over 1,200 slender columns with double arches for strength holding up the roof. Now, since the cathedral was built, 896 columns are left. The forest of columns with red and white striped double stone arches is an impressive sight.
After the Reconquest, the Christians worshipped in the Mezquita for about 300 years without making many changes. However, around 1600 it was decided that a cathedral should be constructed right in the middle of the mosque. At least they didn’t tear the whole thing down, which was the case in many other places. It’s very strange to walk through a low ceilinged mosque, meant to be an intimate prayer space and suddenly enter a big cathedral with 130 foot ceilings, meant to be awe inspiring to people in the presence of God.
After a couple of hours in the Mezquita, we walked around searching out some restaurants. We stopped at the Santos bar across from the Mezquita to share a potato pastry tapa. It was just the right snack for only 2.30 euros. As we ate, we chatted with a couple of other tourists from Maine and Connecticut. When we said we were Canadians, they said “Sorry, we’d get rid of Trump if we could”. They think very highly of Trudeau, perhaps more than many Canadians do. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard these sentiments from travelling Americans. Most of them seem very embarrassed.
The afternoon was still cloudy but it’s not really cold - probably about 17C. We like a little restaurant down the street so much we went there again. We each chose one of the “menu del dia” options. For a big “stirred mushroom appetizer”, main course of meatballs or pork slices with deep fried potatoes and dessert of flan with whipped cream and chocolate, we each paid 10 euros. When we paid, we discovered that the price included the generous glasses of beer and white wine that we had too. Good deal.
Plus, in Spain there is little or no tipping. No smarmy waiter ever says, “Hi, I’ll be your server today”. All of the waiters are professionals who work on whatever needs to be done. Restaurants are run like any other business where the staff can expect to receive a wage that they can live on from the management. More of that attitude in Canada would be a good thing.
Until it started to get dark, we wandered through the narrow streets and then across the river and back on the Roman bridge. Now Anita is catching up on the laundry and I’m catching up on the bookkeeping so we’ll be ready for another day.
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