This was an insanely long travel day, we keep vowing to not do this, but we always end up striving for the most efficient use of travel time so we plough ahead and travel for over 24 hours and have been up for over 32 hours and we are just cooking dinner now.
The flight was a seat sale from Regina to Brussels so we are back in cattle class, but it was the best flight we have had in cattle class as the long-haul was from Montreal, so it was only 6.5 hours or so from Montreal to Brussels. We had to change planes in Toronto and all connections were really good. When I booked I knew it would be Spain, but I didn't know which Spanish city we would fly into, so I waited and booked with Iberia, the Spanish airline, out of Brussels into Madrid. Since this was not booked on a single ticket, I couldn't risk a tight connection time so we had a three hour wait in Brussels, which was fine as one has to walk forever and go through customs, security etc. The staff in Belgium customs were hilarious, they asked if Belgium was our final destination and we said no, Spain for a month, they said oh no, you cannot go to Spain, you have to go home, we all laughed.
We were well supplied with food for the plane as the dinner in cattle class is really not edible and for breakfast, which we declined, they handed out some packaged piece of bread. Our snacks of nuts and muffins sustained us for the entire travel day.
After we got to Madrid we caught the airport express bus to the centre of Madrid and got off at the train station. We managed the ticket machines and bought train tickets on the AVE, which is the high speed train, to Cordoba, in Andalusia, south of Madrid.
The Spanish AVE train system is just wonderful, the trains are great and everything is clean and well signed. We got the last two seats together on the 4:30 train, they are the last seats to go because they are at a table and you face the passengers across the table. We were surrounded by fine, fine, looking Spanish men, all Spanish are stunningly beautiful and well dressed, what is with these Mediterranean people?
We dozed on and off the whole way, the landscape gets more green and more beautiful as you go south. It also got warmer and sunnier the further south we travelled. When flying over Ireland and England, it was thick cloud cover, no wonder there are thousands of expat British living in Spain.
We had printed a map from google to find our way from the train station to our apartment in Cordoba, of course,we walk and tow our roller bags, it would just be too easy to take a cab or bus. There is terrific street signage in Cordoba and it is warm and beautiful. However, we missed one of our turns, but a Spaniard came up and asked if we needed help. He then walked us to our destination and when we thanked him in Spanish, his reaction was very positive.
The guy at the apartment was awesome as well. This place is beyond my cheapskate budget but since I booked accommodation so late, that being last week, it was difficult to find something I liked. The reviews regarding the kindness of the owners were so positive it swayed me, good thing. This is a family business and the son was extremely helpful, he gave us maps, directions, ideas of what to see, a sheet with opening hours, restaurant recommendations etc. I asked him where we could get a SIM card for the cell phone, he said he would take us there and translate for us. He didn’t like the package at the first place so we went to another and got everything taken care of. These people are very kind. On the way back he asked how I found his website, I said on a booking site but I liked to book directly with owners instead of going through the booking site, so he gave us a bottle of local red wine when we got back. The apartment is in a beautiful old building in the centre of Cordoba and the individual apartments are really nice, ours is on the top floor well away from the others.
Cordoba reminds us of Salerno, Italy, it is a really good walking town and the streets are full of people at night and the plazas are full of tables, from what we have seen so far, Cordoba is a beautiful little city.
After we got back from the cell phone store, John and I went around the corner to get some groceries, then it is dinner and off to bed.
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