A quick pit-stop in Cordoba

The most important piece of advice for anyone who wants to drive to Cordoba is to PLAN AHEAD: ring your hotel in advance to find out exactly how to get there and where to park, and make sure that the car is not too big – good luck trying to get a 4 x 4 around these tiny alleys! Luckily our budget dictated that we have a smaller car anyway, but we were not so lucky in the navigation stakes. After about an hour of winding this way and that in the maze of tiny one-way streets equipped only with a rather poor set of directions from Google, we finally gave in and bought a street map (6 euros). Even then the one-way system kept us trapped in the labrynth… but we eventually managed to park in a free space and haul our large suitcase a fair distance to our host in 47°C heat. So we arrived, sweaty and exasperated, at Hostal El Antiguo Convento, whereupon we learned that a space in a private garage came free with the room! So off we went back into the relentless sunshine, this time armed with detailed instructions from the hostel staff, and (with the help of a friendly passer-by who showed us how to unlock the garage door) we were soon parked up and back in our air-conditioned room.

Hostal El Antiguo Convento

Old friends and new

Touching down in a foreign country at 11.30pm, one might be forgiven for expecting to call it a day and get a good night's kip on order to be on good sight-seeing form the next day. However, as far as the madrileños are concerned the evening only began an hour or so ago, and you have arrived just in time to get the party started! A quick pit-stop at home to ditch the luggage and guzzle down the first beverage of the night... and who should emerge from the fridge, but my dear old friend Don Simon! First aquainted in Màlaga, this brand of cheap but oh-so-refreshing sangría and tinto de verano (literally 'red wine of summer', essentially red wine with lemon fanta) was my tipple of choice on many a night on the Costa del Sol. Unfortunately, I must admit that Don Simon has lost a little of his exoticism in my eyes since his fruit juices began appearing in my local Sainsbury's back home...

Tinto de verano - yum!