Day 15 - Monday December 20th 2010 (Cordoba, Spain)

Today we woke up at 9 and packed up everything with the idea that by the time we were in town with our packs we it would be 10 and things would be open. We got a better map from an info booth and walked around a few stores and streets of the city. Eventually we came to the Cathedral Mosque of Cordoba basically the whole reason we wanted to go to Cordoba in the first place. We walked into the gate and the sun was hitting the orange grove in the courtyard. The architecture is amazing and the islamic and christian detailing and the unique red and white arches make this mosque recognizable from any other in the world. The Cathedral being hundreds of years old has changed hands many times and the inside is breathtaking. Unfortunately they don't allow backpacks like ours inside the Church. I don't blame them, I nearly knocked over all kinds doodads in the shops we visited earlier. So off we went in search of a locker. We knew that big backpacking lockers were pretty common in the EU because we had used them in Madrid while we spent time in Sol. We first went into a store and just asked if they could hold our bags for an hour. No luck they said try the renfe. Another store said try the Hotel. The Hotel said, try the library. The Library said your out of luck. So we decided to go in one at a time while the other waited in the library and charged our electrical things in the Library. It worked really well. I was able to write home and check on things and so was Lijah. After the library / Cathedral we realized that we hadn't eaten in a long long time. Like a whole day. So we went in search of food. But on the way to get food we thought we better get our train reservation first so that we don't miss it. The trains had all left for Barcalona that day so we tried getting a ticket to Madrid and then Madrid to Barcelona but they only had 1st class open and that was 50$ upgrade so we booked a train for the next morning. It looked like we were gonna be camping another night in Cordoba. It also looked like rain… grrrrrr. So we grabbed a huge meal and then started walking to our campsite on the Castle wall. It started raining. We went into a grocery to buy breakfast and chocolate and to avoid the rain. It wouldn't stop raining. We walked in the rain and mud to our campsite. We set up the tent superfast.. in the rain and prayed that it would stop by morning. Turns out castle walls don't drain water very well and it rained all night long and so we were a bit wet by 6:30 am the next morning...