This was a “hit some smaller sights” day. Tim ran before breakfast, and Benton, who presumably wanted to sweat more, ran before lunch. In between, we toured a few sites:
The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (Castle of the Christian Monarchs) has an impressive and structured garden with various rectangular pools (there is also the castle, but that was, relatively speaking, small—a single level with some impressive tile mosaics on some of the walls)
Next up was the Cordoba Bullfighting Museum. We watched one video in Spanish and a later video in English, and then availed ourselves of the QR codes on most of the displays to read the texts. Bullfighting…every bit as brutal and confounding as we thought.
Finally, we visited the Palacio de Viana, which is known for having 12 different patios. For the most part, each of these was added at different times with different motivations and with different styles.
Then, it was a swing through the supermarket, back to the apartment for lunch and a siesta, and then back out for drinks (many-fruited smoothies) in Plaza de la Corredera and then dinner and some light moseying.
An interesting/memorable experience of the day:
Benton: The brutality of the bullfighting, including anecdotes like the point of the six lances into their shoulders is to ensure the bulls keep their heads down (we think). And the plot at the castle’s gardens that we saw had a huge weed (5-6’ tall?) in one corner. It definitely looked like a weed. And then we realized that same species was growing—as a single weed—in each of the four corners of that plot of the garden.
Tim: Getting up close (under/touching) the DC-7 that is sitting in a park on the Guadalquivir River since 2011 during his run—it has thrice been intended to have been put to a nobler purpose, but is considered by many to be an eyesore. (Benton had noticed the plane during the guided bike tour and neglected to ask about it; Tim had missed it entirely, but subsequent Googling intrigued him to the point of plotting his run to go by it).
