Von Jaén nach Córdoba, Tag 33

Saturday, 19.8.2023, Day 33

The train adventure continued today. Very early, just before 6:00 a.m., outside it was still dark, the city was still asleep, we rode our bikes to the train station. The ticket counter opened at 6:00 a.m. and initially shocked us because supposedly the ticket specialist couldn't reserve bike tickets for the train to Cordoba. I made a sad face for minutes. And in the end, we got on the train with our bikes and nothing bad happened. We watched the sunrise over Andalusia from the train window and were very excited. By 8:30 a.m., we were already in Cordoba, first a small breakfast in the shade of a church, then to the laundromat, and then to the bike workshop because of my misaligned gear, which the mechanic adjusted excellently, helpfully, and with a lot of demonstrations for €6. Now my bike is in top condition again because tomorrow we'll continue cycling. After that, we moved into our new accommodation in the old town, a great vacation apartment, cool with air conditioning, and behold: with a washing machine. Well, the laundromat thing was already taken care of. Then we walked through the old town, narrow, picturesque alleys, charming houses, all the way to the cathedral, which was an Arabic mosque (mezquita de Córdoba) before its Christian time around 750 AD. We made it to the river (Rio Guadalquivir), but we got slower and slower at 40°C. Apparently, we're not used to walking anymore, or maybe it was the heat that made us pretty exhausted and tired today.

The river comes from the Sierra and flows through Cordoba and will accompany us for a long time because starting tomorrow we'll be cycling along this river towards Sevilla. In Sevilla, we will part ways with the Guadalquivir because it then flows south into the Atlantic, and we will head southwest towards Huelva.

But first, we enjoyed Cordoba today, especially our walks through the wonderful, picturesque, Arab-like old town, as you can see in the photo series from our happy, albeit sweaty, faces at the end.