Sunflowers and Sunshine

6/22/10

Today marks the beginning of our trip to Andalucia!

We left bright and early to hail a cab and make it to the bus by nine. We then drove 2.5 hours to see the windmills of Don Quixote in Castilla-La Mancha to the south of Madrid. There were multiple windmills on the top of this hill overlooking a patchwork of landscaping. It was beautiful.

Then we drove a little bit further to Puerta Lapices for lunch. We got 50 euros for lunch this week but thankfully our madre packed us a lunch so I haven’t had to use it yet. This was a quaint little Don Quixote-themed town.

A door in Puerta Lapices way too cute to pass up

We then got back on the bus and drove for 3 more hours to Cordoba. On the way we passed miles and miles of sunflower fields. It was incredible and we all wanted to jump out and frolic.

Yes, all of these are SUNFLOWERS:)

Cordoba was our big stop for the day. The main thing we saw was the Mezquita which is the Muslim mosque with a cathedral in the middle. Don’t ask me why! It has something to do with the history and the reconquest. They didn’t want to ruin the cool mosque so they just build a cathedral in the middle. The mixture of simple architecture and Baroque intricate architecture of the cathedral. We also saw the synagogue, old Arab market, and learned about Maimonides the philosopher.

*La Mezquita

After a few hours later, we hopped back on the bus and headed for Sevilla. We’ve got a cute little hotel in the Jewish quarters and our rooms are really nice. We also had a 3 course meal for dinner. After dinner we wandered upon a park and strolled through the city. To finish off the night we met in the piano bar and played and sang for about an hour. It was a great and relaxing way to end such a long day.