Travel with JoY

Before we forget what the last week of our trip involved, I better write a quick rundown. Cordoba, famous for the Mosquita, a mashup of Visigoth, Moorish and Christian Renaissance.  This large  'church' spans about two city blocks with the beautiful moorish arched naves surrounded by Christian chapels to various saints.  We've seen enough of these impressive structures though for one trip and instead enjoyed the attached knot gardens with fabulous fountains and sculpted trees. The unique thing for us in Cordoba was trying to get the car out of the underground parking of the hotel.  The front desk came running to help and instead of our forward and backward maneuvers around the pillars, they quickly backed right up the steep exit ramp and with only two adjustments and someone to watch for oncoming traffic got us on the street and going in the correct direction.  And we only ran one red light on the way out of town, yikes! On to Toledo, just an hour or so sou...

From Sevilla we drove just an hour or so south into the mountains to a string of white painted villages nestled up against mountainsides.  The first we came to was Arcos de la Frontera where we simply took a little tourist bus loop tour around the village.  The best thing about that town was a local gentleman, Antonio who took us under his wing and made sure we found the proper bus, in fact he waited until it arrived and explained to the driver how to 'handle' us.  Very sweet. Next we drove onto another, Zahara de la Sierra, up a mountain side with an ancient brick tower built by the Moors crowning the mountain.  We stayed in the most primitive place yet, the only guests at the Hostal Marques de la Zahara.  The room was freezing (colder inside than outside).  When we asked about that and the lack of hot water in the bathroom we were told in Spanish that we could use the room next door for hot water and he brought in a little electric space heater which wa...