This was a program trip, which is always nice because we stay in hotels and it’s all free. We went to a couple of very small towns and Cordoba. It was all pretty much either olive or Muslim themed. Turns out, more olives and olive products come out of this region of Spain than the entire rest of the world combined. We went to a crazy olive oil museum and went through the countryside which has nothing but olive trees covering every square inch of the rolling hills in sight. It’s nice to go to smaller towns sometimes and see more authentically Spanish areas—little towns situated on top of hills with a mix of Christian and Muslim influences. Oh, and the Cordoba Mesquita did indeed live up to the hype.
Some little town.
Every single thing here (from 10 feet away all the way back through all of those hills on for forever) is an olive tree.
Ruins outside of Cordoba.
View of roofs from the hotel.
Where the crush and juice the olives and such.
Nobody really eats olives at the olive museum...
Another small town with a really cool castle.
Muslim palace.
Mesquita!!
But surprise! To celebrate the "reconquest" of the region, they built massive churches in the center of all the mosques.
Directly across from the mosque. It gets better: there are cut outs of kids in baseball uniforms for the door of each bathroom.
Some little town.
Every single thing here (from 10 feet away all the way back through all of those hills on for forever) is an olive tree.
Ruins outside of Cordoba.
View of roofs from the hotel.
Nobody really eats olives at the olive museum...
Another small town with a really cool castle.
Muslim palace.
Mesquita!!
But surprise! To celebrate the "reconquest" of the region, they built massive churches in the center of all the mosques.
Directly across from the mosque. It gets better: there are cut outs of kids in baseball uniforms for the door of each bathroom.