Sevilla, Carmona and Constantina

The Spanish border

We entered Spain on the bus from Faro in Portugal crossing the border at a river separating the two countries, and headed on directly to Sevilla.

There are five blogs in the Andalucia section of the trip and a map of the journey below:
Sevilla, Carmona and Constantina
Old Cordoba and Zuhiros
Priego de Cordoba
For the Love of Ronda
Regreso a Sevilla

Map of the journey

Images on the road to Seville

When we arrived in Seville, the bus station was scorching - full of hot revving buses and the ambient temperature was 42 degrees a baking dry heat taken higher by the fumes and engine heat. Seville proved to have atrocious connections to the airport, so after trying to catch a city bus to link to the airport shuttle we gave up and caught a taxi for 24 euros to make our connection to our Gold Car rental car through Amigo Autos two hours late after managing to phone them to tell them we were on our way.

The Arab pillar Torre del Oro

We then tried in the sunset to find a camp site at Seville but after finding it non-existent, began a long tortuous evening journey first to the historic town of Carmona, striking with white narrow streets a walled inner city and scored a cheesy pizza in the evening in the park where everyone was celebrating the evening in bars and cafes after the hot afternoon siesta.

Streets of Carmona

The central plaza just outside the city walls

The entrance

Narrow streets in the old town

Panoramas of the surrounding country from the heights of the old town

People celebrating in evening in the central park restaurant area

We then drove on in the night up into the mountains through anther historic town Constantina and then San Nicholas del Puerto to a dusty winding 7 km dirt track through the olive-groved mountain park almost by accident finally arriving at the remote little camp site by the river, which we had been seeking all evening, at around 11.20 Spanish time, after getting hopelessly stuck in the evening traversing the towns, sometimes stuck in streets no wider than the car having to make right-angled turns into another street sometimes even narrower, or with parked cars giving you only inches to squeeze through.

Next morning we set off for Cordoba, again getting lost in Constantina.

Constantina

The shining copper spire

Two views of the old castle

The sheltered central park

We then headed back through the Sierras down to the Andalucian plains.

Road through Sierra Norte heading back down to the river valley.

We then turned north again at Lora del Rio and headed along the river valley to Cordoba.

A grand castle by the road approaching Cordoba

Old Cordoba and Zuhiros

The city castle wall of old Cordoba

Arriving in Cordoba, drove into the central historic district, staging a scorching walk through the old Arab and Jewish quarters to the Mesquita mosque converted to a cathedral. We didn't explore the interior, because it is expensive and freely available on the internet, but have included a good set of representative images to show you what it is like.

Gardens by the wall

A series of images of narrow calles in the old bario

The road running along the walls of the Mesquita

The Mesquita

The garden of the Mesquita

Moorish arches (above) and hybrid Gothic and Moorish meeting (below)

Streets leading away from the Mesquita

On our ay back to the car, we made a detour to the Jewish neighbourhood and the Synagogue, while we missed the opening hours of by a few minutes but have also included here images of the interior to complete the picture and compensate for the dominant Christian and Muslim influence, especially since the Jewish quarter must have existed right through both the Moorish and Castilian periods.

Alleys in the Jewish sector of the bario

The neighbourhood of the Synagogue

The Synagogue interior

Jewish courtyard

The day was seriously hot enough to cause heat stroke when we had to walk several blocks back in the sun in haste to get to the car before the parking fees became extortionate.

Return to the city walls

Panorama of the Old City from across the river as we leave

From there we set off on a long trip out to Priego de Cordoba, another historic Spanish hill town which reputedly had a camping site nearby.

Castro del Rio

On the way we climbed in the late afternoon to a little cliff top town called Zuhiros famous for its Moorish Castle, bat caves and precipitously panoramic views from the central plaza overlooking the escarpment and surrounding terrain, managing to drive right up into it with the elderly men all gathered in the square in the cool of the late afternoon, after we cheekily drove up a no entry road except for citizens of Zuhiros.

Zuhiros

Panoramas approaching Zuhiros

Navigating our way up the narrow streets to the central park

Approaching the castle

Golden oldies - Old men of the village enjoying sunset together in the park

Panorama of the overlook

The Moorish castle