Ursula's Travelogues: Semana Santa 2008

On our first full day in the city, we walked around for a little while.

Then we went into the best place in the city, La Mezquita.

Photo taken later in the day, but posted right here.

Until you visit yourself, you don't really have an appreciation for how the place feels - the forest of columns and arches seems to go on forever.

Seriously, go to Cordoba.

And now that you're in awe of the Moorish architecture, get your mind blown by the most ostentatious of Catholic artwork.

The Canadian wall did confuse me.

Let the sun shine in.

This is something important, but I can't remember what.

Now this is aligned in the direction of Mecca. I remembered that.

Cordoba also has a capilla for my saint, St. Ursula. Actually, St. Ursula was de-canonized by the Vatican in 1969 for possibly not existing, but canonized again in 2005. Frankly, I get too disturbed by the fact that the "11,000 maidens" or "virgins" were actually 12-year old girls and therefore children, who should not need to be described by their lack of sexual relations with men, to really understand the rest of the story.

Also, she traveled with 11,000 other people as handmaidens? How would that even work? It takes a lot of food to feed that many people, and where did they all sleep? How do you even find 11,000 handmaidens in the first place?

It doesn't make any sense, so let's move on to these three pictures of the same thing.

But you've been having thoughts of coveting things, so it's time for confession.

Oh, not too fast, big sinner, the confessional is not for you.

My guess is that this is an alter of some sort.

At this point, we went into a special room with special things and some nice statues. They probably have some significance, but it beats me how I would know that.

This was the thing, which could have been the tabernacle and could be made with a lot of gold.

My sister looking at something.

We then spent some time among the orange trees in the courtyard.

We then went to a little cafe for almuerzos. It might have been at the same cafe or perhaps not, but I did take a photo of the many dead pigs that decorate the city.

Fun Fact: During the Inquisitions, neighbors would invite suspected Jewish families to a lovely ham or pork dinner.
If they refused, the Holy Inquisitors were called in. So fun!

After almuerzos, we went to the other major attraction in Cordoba, el Alcazar.

The first time I ever saw a lizard outside of a zoo was near Cordoba when I was 16. Here is another lizard.

As I recall from my first visit to this place, ten years prior, these are the same fish that the Romans put in this pond.

These gardens were definitely put in by the Romans.

These are also Roman.

I don't remember what this is, or if it is even Roman.

Back outside for more Roman things.

This was definitely Roman.

Some ladies and more Roman things.

Trees and the interior area of Acazar.

Then we were outside in the Jardins.

This could be something to do with Columbus or something. I don't know.

After the gardens, my sister and I walked around the old city.

This is, perhaps, my favorite photo from the entire trip.

As we waited for the processions to start, I played with the figurines I had purchased that day. For the record, they are figurines of the Navarones - people in the outfits people wear during these processions.

We went outside and maybe had some food somewhere. We went back to the hostel and started to watch a procession that started with a band playing valveless trumpets and drums.

And vavoom, they're off!

But after a while, we went back into the hostel. Maybe we got some food or not, I can't remember. During this trip, my sister and I stayed in a different room every night. On Thursday, we were in a room that overlooked a procession. I found this to be the best room, despite the fact that it only had a single large bed.