Freya & Us

To pass the time while our Bimini is been made and the weather settles down we decided to hire a car so we could explore further afield and also to visit the city of Cordoba. It took us three hours on 3 separate buses to travel the 50km or so to Almeria airport to collect the hire car, another bargain even after you factor in the mandatory full tank of fuel at around €2.00 a litre.

The five hour drive to Cordoba was lovely, over the mountains and through mile after mile after mile of finely regimented olive groves. We arrived in Cordoba well prepared to find our hotel, only to find that all the roads to it were limited access and mostly one way, the wrong way. In frustration we parked a few hundred metres away and Lorraine walked across to ask for help. The receptionist handed her a city map with the route to the car park marked on it. We needed to enter Cordoba from the other side of town, around a 3 mile diversion to move 100 yards!

Cordoba was another fascinating historic town. The highlight being the Mesquita, originally a mosque that was begun in the year 785 but is now a cathedral. We spent three nights there exploring the Jewish quarter, visiting roman ruins & bridge and lots of other monuments. Cordoba is full of wonderful patios or courtyards which are full of beautiful plants and spring flowers. The Palacio de Viana, which had wonderful courtyard gardens build over several hundred years was fascinating.

The unique experience in Cordoba was the royal stables and dancing horses. At 8.00 pm we entered the stables and sat around the indoor ménage not quite sure what to expect, a bit of dressage to some background music perhaps? We were treated to a fabulous display of horsemanship, with some dressage moves but with lots of tricks and stunts as well. And the horses did dance, with a flamenco dancer, the horses moving in response to her movements, simply stunning.

Our final day in Cordoba was spent visiting the archeological site of Madinat al Zahara a few miles outside the city. This complex (city really) was built in the 10th century by one of the caliphs and was abandoned less than 100 years later. It has been skilfully restored and as you wander through streets, ruined buildings and courtyards you get a real feel for life there. While not quite as big (and not buried by volcanic ash) it has the feel of Pompeii or Ostica Antica (near Rome). An unmissable sight and free!

On return to Freya we were horrified to see the automatic bilge pump was pumping water out of the boat, was she sinking? We rushed on board and were relieved to find that the water was fresh and not salt. We had developed a leak somewhere that was slowly filling the bilges from our water tanks, which were regularly emptied by the pump which was doing its job. Our job is now to find and fix the source of the leak, which despite unscrewing every sole plate (floorboard) and bulkhead is still proving to be a bit of a problem to locate.

Click here for the map of our travels