Camino Mozarabe Day 8: Santa Cruz to Cordoba

Day 8: Santa Cruz to Cordoba.  24 km.

While having our breakfast this morning Moira checked out  accommodation in Cordoba on the Web. She used the booking site, Booking.com, where we got the hotel in Granada and she was successful again. The Cordoba hotel, Hostal Alcazar, was only a few minutes walk from the Cathedral and was costing only E64 for two nights; we were having a sightseeing rest day in Cordoba.

It was another beautiful day, no leggings on as it was nice and warm, and it wasn't long before our fleeces were also off. It was the normal routine before we left  and surprisingly the bar was quite lively as we passed through it to go out. Before leaving the town we went to a bakery that Moira discovered yesterday when shopping and bought some bread. There had been one arrow as we came into town and we followed that direction and were now becoming slightly doubtful about leaving before seeing another one. We were approaching the outskirts and ready to try asking a man coming the other way if we were on track when at last a confirming waymark appeared. We now strode confidently forward knowing it was a straight road to where it joined the main route from Castro del Rio to Cordoba.

After an initial climb it was fairly flat giving us some good easy walking to loosen up. There were lots of large farms and the crops were a mixture of grain and olives. The traffic was light and we didn't see the Dutch couple from yesterday they may have carried on but it is a long walk to Cordoba from Castro del Rio via Santa Cruz. We did meet a man coming the other way, out exercising his greyhounds. He stopped to talk to us and explained the route we should take, in fast Spanish. Here are two questions; why is it when we are lost nobody appears to know the Camino de Santiago route or even where the next town is, but when you are confidently on track there is somebody that wants to confirm it or tell you a better way, and secondly the English know that if you speak loudly to an ignorant foreigner he will understand the language,  but why do the Spanish think that if the keep talking faster and faster that you will eventually begin to comprehend what he is on about?

Cicerone said that we would, after 7 km, reach the road with a sign post pointing Castro del Rio 5 hours 10 minutes - Cordoba 3 hours 10 minutes. This would be the main route. Instead we came to a junction going to a gravel track on the left directed not only by yellow Camino arrows and shells but also with the red and white GR route flashes. Also there was a signpost pointing that way to Cordoba 18.7 km  and to where we had come from - Santa Cruz 5.5 km. We took this path and it was delightful walking through rolling hills. The trail just went up and down but it was the downs we didn't like because of the jarring on our old knees. After 5.5 km we joined another track which we assumed was now the main route. It was at the farm, Cortijo Torre de Juan Gil Alto, mentioned in Cicerone but the road wasn't tarred as the book seemed to indicate; it was gravel all the way to Cordoba.

We stopped at the side of the road and I made coffee that we had it with some bread and jam. While we were sitting there a Land Rover drove slowly past, turned and drove back along the road. We saw it then go into the farm; it must have been the farmer checking what we were doing and happy that we were just wandering peregrinos. On the go again it was still pleasant ups and downs for about another 5 km. Here there were very little olives; some fields had been ploughed, harrowed and ready for spring planting while others were bright green with the winter crops starting to come through. When levelled out to a long flat section it became a slog, especially as we now had a glimpse of Cordoba in a valley below. The city did slowly get nearer and we could see it stretched out along the valley. Soon the boring flat section ended and we dropped down but the route meandered annoyingly back  and forward above the city before at last descending to a tar road; with a signpost , Cordoba 1.4 km; that took us to the houses on the outskirts.

It was very hot now as we dropped into the city and we could see the cathedral and the buildings of the old town straight ahead of us but still some distances way.  We had no rush to find a bed as we had the accommodation booked, our first priority was lunch and especially a nice cool beer. At the first cafe/bar we came to I stood as the barmaid talked to customers and then collected glasses ignoring me, we walked out; I was under the impression that the economy was bad and they were desperate for trade. The next bar we came to gave better service, they didn't do a menu del dia but they had lots of dishes on the a la carte, all for E3. We ordered a salad, a fish mixture of calamari, sardines and fried fish and another with chicken and potatoes. The beers came first with a plate of olives to keep us going while they cooked the rest. It was vey nice and very reasonably priced.

We continued straight down the road from the bar and came to the old Roman bridge, over the Rio Quadaquivir, into the old town. It was full of tourists milling about viewing the various attractions. Soon we were lost in a maze of small narrow winding streets and seemingly impossible to find the one where our hotel was situated. I spotted a tourist with a street map and fortunately they were English. We examined his map and found where we wanted to go, Calle San Basilio, and it wasn't far away. It was close to a tourist information kiosk where we hoped to get a map but it was closed for siesta. I had photographed the section of the tourist's map that concerned us and we found the street and Hostal Alcazar quite easily. 

There was an old woman left in charge of the hotel during siesta time and she didn't have much of a clue but she somehow found us a vacant room. It was quite large with a sitting room, bedroom and shower/toilet. We stretched out on the bed for an hour to recover from the heat and the walk before showering. Feeling recovered and fresh we set out for a stroll round the city as a prelude to some serious sightseeing tomorrow. There was a tourist street map in the room which we took but it was a bit torn so we stopped at the information kiosk, when we went out, to get a new one. The kiosk was now open but the map she gave us was just a small sheet of paper, not very clear, the torn one was better. We made our way to the river and walked along the pavement beside it towards the far end where we looking for the Iglesia de Santiago. It was marked on the map and we found it all right but it was closed. It had many symbols of St James, the red Cross and conch shells; we had been hoping to get a stamp on our credentials here. We got a bit lost in the narrow streets and lanes trying to make our way back to the river but one fortunate finding was signs on the walls of some streets indicating the Camino Mozarabe de Santiago route out of the city. We will investigate this exit from Cordoba more thoroughly tomorrow as Cicerone says that there aren't many waymarks in the city centre.

We eventually found the river and headed back towards the hotel. First we went to a small supermarket nearby that the tourist info had directed us to. It was closed; opening time 6pm. We had a minute to wait but that became 10 minutes before the woman strolled up the street to open the shop doors. These Spanish customs are so infuriating; they have the whole afternoon off for siesta then can't open on time. They should be shown the Ronnie Barker sit-com 'Open all Hours' that would teach them the value of customers and how to make money from them. We bought a banana to go with our muesli for breakfast, some beer and a bottle of wine. The woman had to open the wine bottle for us we didn't have a corkscrew.

Once back a the hotel we settled down to read today's newspaper that Moira had manage to download before we left the hotel in Santa Cruz this morning. For a snack we had bread and cheese followed by an apple. The wine we bought was very nice, it was a bit more expensive than the cheap plonk we usually have that comes in a cardboard box that costs under a euro for a litre. We got to bed early and read for about an hour before getting to sleep. There was some noise from people passing outside in the street but it soon quietened down.