Tag Archives: mosque

Day 16 – Last day in Spain

We managed to get moving quite early for us, by 9.45am we were on the road. Tomorrow is a holiday though so we ended to stock up before going into Sevilla.

Another gigantic Carrefour, even bigger than the last one, didn’t make for a quick stop. Instead, it took us a while to get the few things that we needed. Then, we were good to go! Well, almost, we needed fuel. After that, we were good to go! Well, yeah, but somehow the wrong sight was selected in the satnav which Flo realized halfway there. So it took us until lunchtime to get into Sevilla.

Another Minarett-gone-bell tower

Sevilla is not really a car-friendly city. That’s good. Trying to find parking when you’re already running “late” is bad. We ended up queuing for a spot on a parking deck for about 30 min. By now, it was most definitely lunchtime for us. Spanish people still think 1pm is early for lunch. It took us a bit to find a place to eat. The first one was more of a super traditional tapas bar than a sit in restaurant which would have been cool…without a baby. Number 3 would have been trampled as no one was paying the floor any attention.

On the way to the next possible place, I stopped at a pharmacy. No one is ill, but Number 3 is fighting hard with his molars. And of course we left the dental gel for pain relief at home. 😉

We arrived at the tapas bar I had picked in the Lonely Planet, only to find out that it would open in 15-20min. I was hungry, the baby was hungry. We couldn’t wait that long anymore. So we went to the place a few doors down and had a good meal including strawberry gazpacho. It looked more like a drink than food to be honest. And it tasted like a dessert.

view two

Finally, we were ready to tackle Sevilla. The main thing to do is visit Real Alcazar, the royal palazzo. We had a brief look at the queue winding three times around the whole thing and decided we couldn’t be bothered. Yes, same day tickets would have been available after an hour or a bit more in the queue but no. Just no. Instead, we queued shortly for the cathedral and had a look around in there. All of the churches here were mosques at one point, some even for several centuries. You can still tell from the floorplan in most cases.

In Sevilla, Christopher Columbus is buried. The 19th century monument is overblown but it was still cool to see. At the end of our visit we climbed up the Giraldo, or bell tower. Great views over the city…and onto all those rooftop pools people seem to have.

We left and were tired of sightseeing. It’s time for us to get into Portugal and a slower pace of traveling.

Speaking of the slow kind: By absolute chance we stumbled into what is the coolest campground yet. Super quiet in the forested National park of Donana. We just needed a place to stay for one night that was closer to Portugal than Sevilla so we took a random camp ground on the way, not expecting anything. The setting in the forest with lots of shade was lovely. It was not too busy and filled with other campers with small kids. It even had a whole array of “toys” in the kiddie pool which we tried again with Number 3. He still isn’t too sure about it.

Once Baby was in bed, we even had time to exchange travel stories with Lu and Eike, who travel around with twins in their Volkswagen Bully (T4).

  • On shady spots like this, we save the time and leave the awning off
  • Dirt – interesting as gravel but twice the cleanup!
  • Old school bodega – cool, but not kid friendly
  • I HAZ the food!
  • Another Minarett-gone-bell tower
  • a lady to keep you company
  • The wait was reasonable, but super sunny
  • For a church, there was an awful lot of fencing going on … something to keep the peasants in line i guess
  • oh, we had som silver lying aroud …
  • The main room only barely higher than the sides. Never seen that in a gothic church
  • The icons wear better crowns than some kings of the time …
  • Rosetta opposite the main altar
  • “I have an idea, let’s put it all up there!”
  • another window
  • 34 ramps up and down makes wee one drowsy
  • great views all around
  • View one
  • Bishops cant rest in anguish, can they?
  • Fancy retcon of Cristobal Colon’s last rest. He died impoverished …
  • view two
  • One can still make out the prior mosques footprint
  • Is this a trick?
  • Ok, now I am certain it’s a trick
  • Ok, really? It feels warm …
  • oh, might be actually warm!
  • Swapping travel and baby tales

Day 15 – Sights worth seeing

This morning went just too smooth. We got everything packed up and ready before 10 am, without even rushing. That meant we could have a second breakfast courtesy of the campground just to get us right and ready for Córdoba. We ate, paid and were off to be in town by about 11 am. It was also time to test out my botch job for the tent latch. For now, we will still use the ratchet strap as a backup, but I am confident in my roadside repair skills!

It might be decadent, but we gotten used to going for the parking garage closed to the main attraction we want to see and pay for the safety and general ease rather than hunting for a spot in crowded cities or facing longer walks. Sue me, but I have to carry Number 3. It also means the car is nice and cool when we come back.

The white-and-terracotta striped arches are impressive

This time the parking garage was a bit of a mini attraction on its own. It was tucked in behind the old city wall, and the entrance was an old gate. Very much in style. Our number one item for today was the Mezquita, or Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba. This time, for what felt like the first time, tickets were come by the old fashioned way: Wait in line for 20 minutes, then get in.

This place turned out a definite highlight on our trip so far. The mosque was so enormous that “converting” it after the Reconquista did for once not mean taking away the original character. Instead, over time the Christians build several cathedrals inside. Plus what felt like 50 chapels. Still it felt like a mosque, first and foremost to us. Memories of Iran and Oman came back. Even the mihrab was left intact. What an odd and wonderful place.

We have been slowly pushing our lunch time back. That means we were not the first to line up for lunch for once J – after the indulgences lately, we opted for the hip-and-cheap kind this time. A student juice bar called Bicicleta served us food even with the slight difficulties we had in crossing the language barrier.

Through the Jewish quarter

On our way from lunch, we had a little photo stop at the old bridge which featured as the Long Bridge of Volantis in Game of Thrones.

We finished the sightseeing off with a little stroll through the old Jewish quarter. Narrow lanes and cute courtyards take the edge of the coming afternoon heat. Looping back to our car park right next to it, we felt sufficiently tired to head for our next camp in Seville. Best to go for close range for the big hits.

The city camp ground ended up to be of the could-be-a-lot-worse kind, and Number 3 even made friends with some kids nearby. Enough to be invited to a private pool party. The fellow Germans were on a similar two month parental leave trip, although with their second child already. Once again, we learned that Number 3 and cool water have an ambivalent relationship. Our hosts were real nice and had some travel experience under their belt. It was almost a shame that we would be rushing of the next morning already. But Portugal awaits.

  • Only one of the towers was completed so it’s nicknamed the “one-armed lady”
  • Queuing for tickets
  • The white-and-terracotta striped arches are impressive
  • Mezquita detail 1
  • Mezquita detail 2
  • Mezquita detail 3
  • “Could you go out of the picture?” German old lady to Flo because the carrier backback was in her picture
  • The choir
  • In the courtyard
  • Through the Jewish quarter
  • Little plaza (with orange tree)
  • Parking garage
  • Mosque-Cahedral side facing west
  • The first of the two full churches build within the mosque
  • Mihrab
  • Mihrab detail
  • Super strange seing depictions of saints before a muslim backdrop
  • muslim foreground, church above …
  • doors at the south side
  • narrow street of the old town
  • Toasties lunch
  • Puente Romano which featuered as the Long Bridge of Volantis in GoT
  • In the Jewish quarter

Day 279 – The princess is in another mosque

Happy Mothers Day, Connie and Sabine!

This was the spontaneous bonus day we added to our stay in Esfahan. For one, Nina can do with some more recovery time. Plus, with today, we have at least caught up with the blog till yesterday. I had called my mum last night, Nina had planned it for today. And so the day went by, until well into the afternoon.

The fountain is modeled after the qibla in mecca and pilgrims would come here to practice ...

The fountain is modeled after the qibla in mecca and pilgrims would come here to practice …

Nina had one more sightseeing goal for Esfahan, to see the mosque from the cover of the lonely planet. Yesterday, we went to the Shah’s Mosque, which was not it. So we forced ourselves out of bed and back to the city one more time. It was a decent walk to today’s destination, Masjid-e Jameh. Our mood was low, but we pushed it.

Well, it turned out that this was not the one either. Apart from the hefty 400.000 rial admission fee, it was still pretty cool. It is the largest mosque in Iran and very different from the ones on Naqsh-e Jahan. Here, there were almost no mosaics, but instead the decorations were fashioned in brickwork instead. It is also much older than Masjid-e Shah, at least in parts. Nina was a bit bummed that we still did not find the “cover mosque”, but this was a great consolation price.

Another round of walking (and getting lost) in the bazaar

Another round of walking (and getting lost) in the bazaar

We left the mosque at about 4 pm and made our way to the final stop: a recommended ice cream shop at the other end of the bazaar. The idea was to find food along the way. Unfortunately, we failed a bit at reading the map and made it almost all the way to the sweet treats before realising that the restaurant we were looking for was … somewhere else. Sweets before lunch / dinner it was, then.

Because we had skipped lunch and have not had a “treat” meal in a while, we decided to go to one of the fancy and a bit touristy restaurants afterwards. This one was really pretty, located in one corner of the massive Jahan square (which allegedly is the second largest square in the world after Tianamen). The food was good but not overwhelming. At least a lot better than our usual fast food joint roadside snacks. I had a lovely piece of mutton and Nina got an aubergine stew.

Time for a "Fancy Feast". Flo had lamb...spot the bone

Time for a “Fancy Feast”. Flo had lamb…spot the bone

During dinner, we finally found the image description on the Lonely Planet to find out that the mosque on the cover was of course the last of the big three – the one we had snubbed yesterday. It would be closed for the day once we were done with our dinner, so it got put on the “maybe tomorrow morning” list in the end.

Happy and full, we slouched back to our hostel. It could have been nice to finish off the day at the riverfront, but we could not muster the energy for the 45 minute walk anymore.

 

 

 

Day 248 – Muscat, the fairy-tale city

Rise and shine. Time to get moving again.

Rise and shine. Time to get moving again.

Good thing we got up with Lina and Michael today as the early start gave us plenty of time to pack. After eight stationary days, almost everything was unpacked. We also wanted to be good house guests and clean up a little after ourselves. 😉 There were a lot of administrative things we weren’t up to date with and so on and so forth. Lina had said that she will have time off from teaching from 9.40 am onward for a bit so we could drop by at school to hand back the keys.

Arriving at about 10 am, we handed everything back, showed Lina and Jorge the fully loaded bike and said good-bye until we’re on our way back out of Oman. It is weird to leave again. We’re looking forward to exploring Oman immensely, but catching up with her and Michael and living in a real flat had been amazing. Now, we were heading to Muscat, about 250 km from Sohar, which is the capital of Oman.

Waving goodbye to our temporary home away from home

Waving goodbye to our temporary home away from home

Being on the road was different from our last experiences in Southeast Asia. For one, traffic is moving really fast with a speed limit of 120 km/h. But most importantly, drivers reacted to us, something which hasn’t happened in Thailand at all. There would be a tentative honk from behind and then a car would pass us on the fast lane, giving us a thumbs up or a wave or a smile. That was actually quite lovely.

When we were just over the half-way mark, we had a coffee stop. Flo enjoyed the roadside coffee a lot – it seems to have been flavoured with spices. I, however, bought a thin, honeyed pancake as a snack and can only approve of that. 😉 English is spoken widely so we had no trouble ordering food and explaining our trip as the interest in the motorbike was incredible. At the gas station, staff studied our world map before we even finished re-fueling so that it took us a moment to get where the “2015…long trip” comment was coming from. 🙂

Over the first hill. Next up, Matrah and Old Muscat.

Over the first hill. Next up, Matrah and Old Muscat.

Moving, the temperature was fine, just standing in the grilling sun was getting to us again. I took a couple of pictures on the road but really, it was getting into the center of Muscat that was eye-opening. The city sprawls for quite a while before you actually see the sea on one side and the mountains on all three other sides.

We headed to the waterfront as this is the “budget” area. The hotel we had seen in the Lonely Planet was closed and under construction so we asked around in the hotels close by. They were all lovely but way more than we need. This fact was reflected in the price. 60 euro for one night? *cough* They all pretty much stuck to this price. There doesn’t seem to be much backpacker tourism going on which makes more affluent people the most likely candidate for the rooms available. We checked Agoda and one of the hotels further inland had a rate of 40 euro per night. When we arrived, we got a gigantic room including a tv, a kitchen and a bathroom with a bathing tub. All of this is very nice but pricey so we will (have to) camp as much as possible from now on.

With enough space for 20000, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is a sight to behold.

With enough space for 20000, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is a sight to behold.

People were incredibly nice to us though. They stopped on the street to have a chat when I was waiting for Flo next to the bike. Some recommended things, others were mostly interested in our travels. There’s a cruise ship in the harbour at the moment, so the German tourists also came by, had a chat and took a picture. I think the most adorable instance was an Omani asking to take a picture of us and then explaining that he is a motorcycle driving instructor.

By the time we’d checked in and unloaded our luggage, it was 3pm. Very hungry, we went out in search for food. Nothing around our hotel was open (siesta?) so we ended up back at the waterfront. Driving around Muscat revealed pretty views but my camera was packed away for most of it. You go along roads, a view opens up and suddenly there are jagged mountains, often even with a round tower or a fort on it. It makes the whole situation slightly unreal and simply looks like a fairy tale. In between the houses, mosques are dotted and you can see domes everywhere, even on the bus stop shelters.

A lot of necklaces

A lot of necklaces

After “lunch”, it was 4.30pm. Instead of rushing to a museum which would close at 6pm, we went into the Mutrah Souq. I was instantly slightly overwhelmed by all the goods, the smells (mostly incense) and again, the attention we attracted in our motorcycle gear. The souq is a maze of alleyways, more or less covered, with stalls selling just about everything. We already found a sticker of the Oman flag to put on the motorbike plus, I bought all of the postcards I will write from Oman.

Pretty dead from a long day, we bought groceries on the way back to the hotel and crashed.