Europe Day 17 - Córdoba (via Madrid)

Sunday
We can take our time to have breakfast, pack, check mail and upload in the lobby etc.
At 11:30 the hotel reception called a taxi which was there pronto (it's Sunday) and it took not much time to drive to the airport. The taxi driver asked: which terminal? Low cost? (His limited English) Yes, EasyJet!
Check in, security, all went without much delay but we didn't know which gate. It was lunch time so that's what we did. It's only a short flight from Lisbon (leaving at 13:55) to Madrid (arriving 16:15) but we are also losing an hour time difference.

The weather was perfect and I could see a lot. Really enjoyed it. All those many roundabouts! And big circles in the fields which must be irrigation controlled.

We waited a while for our luggage but I liked this poster at the belt. Goldfish traveling?

We took a bus from the airport to the train station. Only 5 Euros per person. Taxi is at least 30 Euros. Matter of principal. And especially Helen will enjoy seeing this picture! See the banner?

Now we have reached the train station, we need to find where to buy the tickets.

The train station is huge. We ask several times and are send here and there.

Finally we are at the right place, have to take a number and then a very unfriendly lady tells us no more tourist tickets today, only first class ... for something like 220 Euros. We ask each and she said yes and of course we are shocked because flying would have been cheaper.
In Portugal you just get senior tickets, in Spain you buy senior passes good for one year (6 Euros each) and you get discount every time for that year. Anyways we ended up paying 56 Euros for the tickets which wasn't that bad.
Then we had to watch the monitors from which platform it was going to leave.

When we knew it was 14 we had to go through security (the luggage got xrayed) and then could go down.

First class is very nice and comfy. No WiFi in this one though. I loved seeing the landscape go past from the high speed train. It changed quickly from what I had seen so far. No speed indicator but it seemed to be even faster than the 220km per hour of the train in Portugal.

We debated whether they were olive or cork trees. James had seen both when he had walked out of Seville last year.

When we arrived in Córdoba we took time and bought the tickets to Seville and also the tickets from Seville to Madrid. We didn't want to have that problem again. And with the senior passes all was very reasonable.
It was a short taxi ride and I couldn't believe how different this hotel is from the previous. When James looks for a hotel he looks first for the location, having narrowed the selection he then looks at the price and the comments. This is a first class place! Hot shower, change of clothes and off we go since we did not do much walking yet today.
At check-in we had been given a city map and several pages printed by the hotel what to see. The old city wall gate was across the street.

We walked some through the narrow winding streets and immediately felt the charm. We found a place to have dinner. We wanted to try something new so I had seafood stuffed red peppers and James lamb with a honey sauce.

Both of the above was excellent. I took this picture not so much because of James but of the lady with the black Spanish fan fanning herself. Each table top was a white marble slab.

All the streets in towns like this are so different in the night and day.

Back to the hotel across the street. The blue on the top must be the roof top bar.

Had to check it out.

Something with the A/C in our room. It was cold when we arrived and tried to adjust. But we did find a blanket which made it for a good night night.

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