Today was a free day for the group in Madrid, we could do a day trip or stay in the city. Becky and I chose to go see the famous Mosque Cathedral in Cordoba.

The day started out okay, we had our train reservations and were all set to leave at 10 am. However, when we arrived at the station, we found that the reservations had been made for sunday, not saturday, so we had to run downstairs in the station to switch our reservations, and literally made our train within one minute of it pulling out of the station. We arrived in Cordoba fine, but I managed to leave my sketchbook and rail pass on the train so ended up dramatically running down the upward moving escalator, dramatically falling at the bottom, getting on and off and on and off the train finally getting back into the right car and getting my things, being yelled at the whole time by various conductors.

Finally, we were on our way. We walked through the city to the mosque cathedral and spent several hours wandering inside and doing sketches of the maze of columns in the interior. It's an amazing space, originally a small medieval church, a mosque was built over the site when the Moors invaded Spain in the 700s, and built in a total of 4 or so sections. The arches are a rather unique feature, horseshoe shaped and alternating red and white brick. When the Christians retook Spain, the mosque was reconsecrated as a church, and changes were made to the interior, including a dome and Gothic altar space inside the main space.

We then wandered the old part of the city, past the old Roman bridge, the castle, and then back up to the train station. The bridge and much of the historic area around it are currently in the beginning of an extensive restoration project, the model for which we were able to see.