Introduction

Camino Mozárabe 2024

Tomorrow Yung Wha and I will fly to Madrid, where we'll stay for a few days before taking a bus to Granada. After a couple of days there, we intend to walk a portion of the Camino Mozárabe. The Mozárabe is one of the many pilgrimage paths to Santiago de Compostela, starting on the southern coast of Spain in Almería or Málaga. In our case, we'll be walking the 170 km portion from Granada to Córdoba, which we hope to accomplish in eight days.

We've done this sort of walk a few times before:

• Caminho Português, 2015, Porto to Santiago de Compostela — Chris and Yung
• Caminho Português, 2016, Porto to Santiago de Compostela — Chris and Oliver
• Via di Francesco, 2017, Firenze to Assisi — Chris and Yung
• Via di Francesco, 2019, Firenze to Assisi — Chris and Oliver
• Caminho Português, 2022, Porto to Santiago de Compostela — Chris, Yung, Amy, & Mary

We'll be traveling without computer or tablet, only our cell phones, so—since typing isn't simple on the phone—this blog will mostly consist of links to photos we take along the way, probably with pretty sparse commentary. I hope you enjoy this reportage of our trek.

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Day 2 in Córdoba

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Today we went to the Palacio de Vania, known for its many courtyards. Here are photos of the palace first floor interior , and the courtyards . After that we walked through the Plaza de la Corredera , and its small mercado . We continued through the streets of Córdoba, then had tapas lunch at the Casa de Pepe de la Judería (tapa of rabo de toro shown).
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Day 1 in Córdoba

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In our first full day in Córdoba we were good tourists, visiting the mezquita-catedral and the alcázar.  The mosque was built in the 8th century (through the 10th century), the Moors were driven out of the region in the 13th century, and the major conversion of the building into a cathedral began in the 16th century (through the 19th century). Yung Wha and I joked that the Spaniards recognized the magnificence of the mosque, so instead of changing it they just overwhelmed it with Christianity. So, I've simply categorized the mezquita-catedral photos roughly into Moorish and Christian , with no other particular organization or commentary.  We then went to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos. The Alcázar contains a remarkably well preserved collection of Roman mosaics and other artifacts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. We climbed to the top of one of its towers, from which we could view the surrounding grounds . And we enjoyed the gardens in relatively cool temperature unde...
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Etapa 6 — Baena to Castro del Río

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We were out by a little before 7:00 today, we soon reached the edge of town , and by 7:25 Baena was already far in the distance behind us. For the next 20 minutes we enjoyed the pre-dawn light , and by about 7:45 the sun was up , but was still blocked by the mountains. By about 8:30 the sun was fully up, and we had reached the local highway, on which we walked for a couple of kilometers. There were very few cars, so it wasn't stressful. I got a kick out of the way the sun to our east cast our shadows on the trees . Eventually we reached the Puente de la Mutarra, which took us across the Río Guadajoz. Shortly beyond that we came upon a couple of picnic tables and benches that had been constructed for pilgrims on the Camino Mozárabe. We weren't terribly tired, but we stopped and rested there for a few minutes anyway, just so that the Spanish taxpayers' money would be well spent. From there on, the walk stayed fairly level, 'cause we were pretty much just following the ...
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