Visiting Cordoba, Spain/ Carlos Pueblo

Visiting Cordoba, Spain/ Carlos Pueblo

Cordoba is in the south of Spain, north of city of Malaga, one hour of AVE

train ride from Malaga. General speaking, most of Spanish city were old

castle kingdom. Cordoba is one of the oldest cities in the world, at present,

the population is 330,000. After getting off the train, I walked towards

the Guadlquivir River direction, passing by a city park, a Moor Castle, a

Roman ruin temple, converted Cathedral, Roman bridge over the river.

After lunch, I again took a walk inside the city wall, turned to the riverside

. Castle, park, and train station. At the station, I ran into a couple of Chinese

mother and daughter from Beijing.

The city park is just next to the train station. There are rose gardens, orange

trees, and even a nursery. People were walking their dogs in the park and I

used to greet the pets  when I met them. I prepared a sentence in Spanish

which was that I had more dog friends than human beings and followed by

some sweet greeting in English such as sugar, sweetie, and honey etc. The

owner would pull the dog’s attention and allow me to pet. At the edge of the

park, buggies were waiting for tourists to ride on to see the city. The Moor

Castle is next to the park.

The Castle has been converted to fee-paid museum. The wall, castle canals,

and gardens are all well maintained. Inside the wall is the downtown, there

are stores, apartments, city squares, cathedral and churches etc. Residents

hang their flower pots on the balcony above the narrow ally. It is very unique

in Old European town on which you can see some post cards. For that time

being, the flower was Petunia. I selected a restaurant on a narrow street corner

for lunch, of course, it was under the lunch special, el menu del dia, a nice salada

with main course pescado, grilled fish, and el vino negro. One glass of wine is 4

euros. Cordoba was a very famous Moor Kingdom, the Caliphate of Al-Antalusid,

 affiliate to the Umayyad Dynasty of Damascus, currently Syria. Because of this

visit of Spain, I study very much of this history through Google, Youtube movies.

It helps me to understand some of the current world politics. The Moors conquered

Spain in 711 and was expelled gradually until 1942. In this period is called Islam

Golden age while after 1492 is called Spanish golden era while Spanish navy had

reached northern Formosa.

Roman Empire conquered Spain and their soldiers stayed in Cordoba after dynasty

changed. The Empire left some remains such as temple, bridge over the River. From

the bridge, you still can view the old river lock, can take  some pictures with the tower

on the bridge. It is amazing that the 2000 years bridge is still well maintained and is

still in use. I am very impressed of the city for its well keep effort of the city.

Very soon, I was on my way back to the train station, passing by the original route,

the Castle, the park, and the big avenue towards the station. While waiting in the

station, I met a couple from Beijing, a mother and her daughter. She told me that

she was very impressed of Taiwanese good manners. I was stopped at the entrance

of high speed train due to a wrong ticket and finally I found it before the train embarked.