Olive Oil and Cordoba

We said goodbye to Sevilla sooner than anyone wanted to but were rewarded with a tour of an Olive Oil cooperative outside the city.  The Basilippo facility is incredible.  It is family owned for 3 generations and takes making high quality ( extra virgin ) olive oil seriously.  The tour guide was so informative.   We saw the trees, learned about the harvest and toured the pressing factory ( only in operation from October to December when they harvest the olives ).  After that, we had a tasting.  Who knew you had tastings for olive oil?  Needless to say, the gift shop on the way out was a big hit.

From there we travelled to Córdoba.   The city was once a regional capital for both the Romans and the Moores.  During the dark ages when most of Europe was barbaric and illiterate, Córdoba was a center for enlightened thought and religious tolerance.  The beautiful Mezquita, started around 784 a.d., is an incredibly well preserved mosque.  In 1236 King Ferdinand lll reconquered Cordoba and built a cathedral on the grounds of the Mosque.  It is a unique meshing of the architecture of worship for two religions and is a World Heritage Site.

In addition to all the remains of the Moorish culture, there is also a significant Roman Bridge over the  river Guadalquivir.  This is the same body of water as in Sevilla but it is marshy and non-navigable.  Fun to see structures with so much history, incredible engineering and design and from so long ago.

Our time was short in this lovely city as we got back on our bus for the 5 hour ride to return to Madrid.  The bus is comfortable and has wifi so there were very few complaints.  On Wednesday we have plans to visit another school and take salsa dancing lessons.  Stay tuned....