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Yeah, yeah, I'm behind. Way behind. Have three days all at once.
On Saturday we sat around over breakfast deciding what to do. In the end we decided to go to Cordoba. It was supposed to be pretty wet all afternoon, but not as bad as Marbella, where we were, and neither Mum not I had been to Cordoba before.
Cordoba is beautiful, and its old Mosque is magnificent. It came in grey and windy in the afternoon, but the rain held off altogether. We had a lovely meal in a decidedly quirky restaurant and then went to a flamenco show.
The show was very much a Tourist Special, but the quality was outstanding. I don't know if you've ever seen flamenco danced properly, but it is breathtaking. The music is totally unique - it utterly disdains most traditional patterns of melody and rhythm, there is nothing comfortably familiar to relax into, it grabs your attention and holds it every second. The dancers were amazing. The sheer passion that goes into the dance is stunning. Most of the performances were female solos. One in particular was absolutely riveting - you just couldn't take your eyes off her. It's also unusual in that the dancers don't dance to the music, the musicians play to the dancer. There were two guitarists and two vocalists and they were all keeping time to the dancers' feet. I am pretty astounded by the skill required to do that. It's hard enough when you're watching a conductor. The show was two hours, but we had no sense of that much time passing. It was an amazing experience.
Sunday morning was clear and sunny, and it was around 30 degrees at lunchtime - much more what I got used to in Provence than what we'd had here in UK. We went around the castle and its gardens, which were beautiful. They also had some amazingly intact Roman mosaics. Also, I randomly bumped into a woman who occasionally works for my company. I had no idea she was in Spain at all, and then there she was, so we had a little chat.
My flight home, a Squeezyjet flight due to leave at 2340, left... wait for it... early, allowing me to be in bed not much after 2.30. (No really, that's a good thing. I once got in from that flight at about 5.30.) I had taken the morning off, but ended up calling in sick for the afternoon, so spent the whole day in my lovely snuggly bed, which was great.
On Saturday we sat around over breakfast deciding what to do. In the end we decided to go to Cordoba. It was supposed to be pretty wet all afternoon, but not as bad as Marbella, where we were, and neither Mum not I had been to Cordoba before.
Cordoba is beautiful, and its old Mosque is magnificent. It came in grey and windy in the afternoon, but the rain held off altogether. We had a lovely meal in a decidedly quirky restaurant and then went to a flamenco show.
The show was very much a Tourist Special, but the quality was outstanding. I don't know if you've ever seen flamenco danced properly, but it is breathtaking. The music is totally unique - it utterly disdains most traditional patterns of melody and rhythm, there is nothing comfortably familiar to relax into, it grabs your attention and holds it every second. The dancers were amazing. The sheer passion that goes into the dance is stunning. Most of the performances were female solos. One in particular was absolutely riveting - you just couldn't take your eyes off her. It's also unusual in that the dancers don't dance to the music, the musicians play to the dancer. There were two guitarists and two vocalists and they were all keeping time to the dancers' feet. I am pretty astounded by the skill required to do that. It's hard enough when you're watching a conductor. The show was two hours, but we had no sense of that much time passing. It was an amazing experience.
Sunday morning was clear and sunny, and it was around 30 degrees at lunchtime - much more what I got used to in Provence than what we'd had here in UK. We went around the castle and its gardens, which were beautiful. They also had some amazingly intact Roman mosaics. Also, I randomly bumped into a woman who occasionally works for my company. I had no idea she was in Spain at all, and then there she was, so we had a little chat.
My flight home, a Squeezyjet flight due to leave at 2340, left... wait for it... early, allowing me to be in bed not much after 2.30. (No really, that's a good thing. I once got in from that flight at about 5.30.) I had taken the morning off, but ended up calling in sick for the afternoon, so spent the whole day in my lovely snuggly bed, which was great.