Thursday 14 June, Barcelona, the old city of Barcelona, the Ramblas
And again we go by bus to the centre and buy a day ticket. It is the cheapest and easiest way to travel through Barcelona. First we walk up to Montjuic and the nearby Olympic Stadium. One likes it or not. Teije has been to the Olympic village at Montreal and he found that much more impressive. We even don't take a picture... but we are not really sport fanatics.






Friday 15 June 2001, Barcelona - Cordoba, a long drive through the meseta's
We have to cross the whole Iberian peninsula on our way to Portugal and we decide it won't matter which way we take. So we first go to Cordoba, a Moorish city we both want to see. With Sevilla, it is one of the most interesting cities of Andalucia (south Spain). During the Muslim rule (711 - 1263 AD.) Cordoba has been the cultural and artistic centre of the "Al-Andalus"-empire, and also the capital of the western Caliphate. Muslims, Catholics and Jews all put their own stamp on this medieval city.We don't know if we can cover the distance from Barcelona to Cordoba in one day (almost 1000 km) and we don't want to rush. But after 500 hundred kilometers and with temperatures well above 35°C we are getting bored a bit by the, although beautiful, but also very monotonous tableland of Central Spain and we decide not to loose any time and drive all the way to Cordoba. But when we arrive at the city it takes us more than an hour to find a cheap hotel which still has rooms available.

Later we understand (using sign language) that we can have the room for 2 nights; it is very small and we have to return to the reception to ask how the key works. There is no bar and we are too tired to look for one outside, so we take a softdrink at the reception.