La Mezquita de Cordoba

Cordoba has to be one of the most interesting places out there. And so after a day and a half of being here we decided to interrupt our lunch to go and check out some of the history. Due to the plagiaristic wonders of the internet, I can now reliably inform you that Cordoba was the capital of the Roman province of Hispania Baetica and the Moorish Al-Andalus Caliphate. You gotta love Wikipedia! Anyway as a result of all this prominence and religious back and forth, the city contains some gems, foremost of which is the Mezquita, or Mosque. Within the mosque, which was built from the mid 8th century onwards, is the cathedral. After the reconquista the Spanish religious leaders showed remarkable restraint and sense in not knocking down the whole thing but co-opting it for their own purposes. The end result is tremendous - the whole complex is a mix of Islamic and Christian design and imagery. Surrounding the vast, gloomily lit domed interior are a mix of ornate Catholic chapels and Islamic prayer niches covered with calligraphy. It is truly stunning. Check out way more about it at a few of these links: Sacred Destinations, Islamic Architecture, or this gallery

Cordoba mas buena

CORDOBA!!!! What can we say?? We both agree that it is the best part of our trip so far. Although getting into town was a bit of a pain in the hoohaa because i had to drive this enormous vehicle through streets the size of a small escalator. Rob was extremely patient, as usual, and got out of the car and directed me to backout of a dead end one way street and make a hairpin turn while a line of extra small (smart) cars waited and honked their tiny horns. I sweated through my shirt... BUT, it was so worthwhile as the city is absolutely amazing. We spent one entire day not doing anything but eating way too much tapas while sitting in the sun on the corner of a very small street and having beers. It was a great day off from either driving or sightseeing.


We are soooo off of the Spanish timetable of eating and going out. People here do not have dinner until 10pm, and Rob and I have been showing up at restaurants around 7pm like "where's the food and people?" and everyone is till pretty much on siesta time. So tonight we booked a restaurant for 9PM!!! We are almost cool...

Picnic, bad haircut, madrid and a gas station

So after leaving Bilbao, we were off to Madrid! We decided to pull over on the way to check out the lunching capabilities of our vehicle. We were both very impressed, making jamon y quesa sandwiches with mustard and mayo and a yogurt for dessert. THe chairs were taken down from the rooftop storage box and we sat on the side of a dirt road and checked out the haystacks. Some guy on a tractor kept chugging by and waving, each time having something different to yell over the drone of his engine. It was a beautiful day and the food was four star.
Then all hell broke loose. I decided to get my hair chopped off in madrid, and i have been saying for months i would "wait till madrid cause they will have a funky place to get my hair done".
Well, unfortunately I was lost in translation and when i asked for a "funky" haircut at a very bizzaro salon in a bizzaro neighborhood downtown, i think they heard "funny" cause i came out looking like a lead guitar player from a really bad 80s heavy metal video. Think Foreigner, but worse. I pouted around for longer than i should have and then pouted some more but i think i am over it now and enjoying the 30 minutes less i need to spend in the shower putting a rake through my hair. All is back to normal.
The Prado museum in madrid was very cool and we saw a Modigliani (my favorite!!!) exhibition at the Thyssen Fondacion. I was getting goosebumps all over the place...
Then we headed south to Cordoba, and took the gas station shot at a roadside stop. Open it up in a larger window, it is pretty cool. With shots like this, i think Gursky should call me for a few tips.

The Guggenheim

So we finally got to see the Guggenheim in Bilbao!!! First of all, no photos can do the architecture any justice. It is situated right on the water and is incorporated into it's surroundings so seamlessly that you almost miss it.... well not really, but you get the point. Every corner (although there are no "real" corners) has it's own character. Even the view from the back that is lined with garbage pails is stunning. Gehry left no detail overlooked.
Enough about the outside. The collection is AWESOME!!! Rob was having a grumpy morning and wasn't feelin so great but i quietly convinced him to come along to see the museum and within minutes of it's approach he had a huge smile and was feeling in tip top shape. We spent about 4 hours inside and I put as much to memory as possible. It allows me to take a nice tour again in my head before I go to sleep at night. There were some pretty impressive Koons paintings inside and the Richard Serra exhibit left both of us speechless. One of my best memories thus far.

We are in Bilbao

We are really here just to see the Guggenheim. We don't want to make you all jealous but it is about 70F here so we were sitting out in the sun yesterday. Pretty much the same as New York in February. Off to see some art today. We don't have any photos from here so you can check out the Guggenheim's website instead by clicking here. We drove past the building yesterday and it is even more amazing than it seems in the photos.

An ascent of Txurrumurru (seriously)

We are in Basque country which means crazy spelling. Driving down from Biarritz to San Sebastian in northern Spain we saw this peak in the foothills of the Pyrenees and decided to pop up it for some exercise. It is situated in the Aiako Harria Natural Park just inside the Spanish boder and is a fairly gentle walk up with some fun scrambling and bouldering at the top. The whole place was covered with sheep and wild ponies which made Wendy very happy. Afterwards we came on down to San Sebastian for the evening.

Biarritz baby, yeah!

Ugh...I can't STAND Biarritz. It is so sunny and the water is so blue and everyone is happy and Rob is making me run with him. This place could use a good dose of bad English weather and some even worse pub food, and then i might feel a bit more at home.
In all seriousness, we are having a blast on the first leg of our trip. We are currently on the south west coast of France and it has been in the upper 60s and sunny the entire time. All of our meals have been outdoors on a patio or a deck overlooking the sea. It really is heavenly. Today we are off to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim!! I am so excited! Until next time, au revoir!!

Travelling down through France - Mont St Michel and La Rochelle

We left Caen Sunday morning to drive down the Atlantic coast towards Spain. We stopped for lunch at Mont St Michel before heading on past Rennes and Nantes to La Rochelle where we stopped for the night. Beautiful small town.

The weather is getting warmer as we head south. We are aiming for Biarritz tonight and then Bilbao for the Guggenheim. The vehicle is performing well and amazingly we don't seem to have forgotten anything!

We're leaving now!

And here are a few more

To stop Tara getting any more upset here are some more pictures of the car

Here is also a short video tour of the car, and I finally got round to adding one in the blog entry from a few days ago (ie two entries before this one). Before anyone asks we still haven't left. We are now up in Scotland scouting out places to get married.