Oasis Hotel Cordoba

Cordoba - Cathedral

If there comes a time when cutting the overall cost of a trip is a good idea, one way is to punctuate your stay between chic or grand or charming but pricey hotels, with a cheaper one.

Cordoba is a must-see (why else stay there!?). Another “must-visit” in your Andalucian tour. I chose my visit there to coincide with this cost-reduction manoeuvre.

The Oasis hotel is on a main boulevard, Avenida actually (for we are in Spain!), and has easy access to the centre – a short three euro taxi ride (on a sizzling 38 degree hot day you do not want to take the 15 minute walk) to the Puente Romano (bridge across the Guadalquivir River).

This is a great way to approach the centre as you walk across the river with the Cathedral in view straight ahead of you, the whole way across the river. A magical sight.

The Cathedral is famous because of the extensive mosque structure which acts like a large Moorish arcade surrounding the cathedral itself in the centre. It is massive, dramatic, foreboding, impressive, moving – some or all of these depending upon your own interpretation – but not to be missed!

Leading into Cordoba

Add in the old town area spreading away from this in narrow crowded streets, the Arab Baths, Botanic Gardens and some locals-out-for the night squares with cafes and bars serenaded by touring street musicians playing with hope for donations of appreciation.

The Oasis is clean, well run, staffed by friendly family and their employees, rooms are neat, simple and very acceptable. The rooms at the back are quiet and view across the river to Cordoba itself ( a subdued partial view).

There is a large and well kept swimming pool, restaurant and bar.

Hotel Oasis entrance and parking for cars - Cordoba, Andalucia

Don’t forget to go to local cafes and bars in the various small neighbourhood squares around the city and consider the Conception – Conde de Gondomar – Plaza Tendillas area if you would like to use this as your opportunity to sample the fashions in Spain’s main shops.

To stay at the very reasonable Oasis hotel in Cordoba – make a reservation here

There is something unique to the experience of rising early for a flight.

It’s not the same as an early start for a motoring journey whether that happens to be from home or a hotel.

After the airport - the flight

Setting out to get to the airport has peculiar stresses and some pleasures.

If you leave on time it is pleasing, even better if you get away before the appointed departure time you had set. It gives a feeling that you are in control – for a small delay has already been “discounted” in the early time, the extra minutes.

But! Every time there is a slow down, a delay of any sort – could be a queue of traffic longer than expected to access a road at a junction, could be a view of numerous brake lights on the rear of cars in front all coming on one after the other like a series of dominoes, or the sight of a diversion sign – these things are sure to give you the opportunity to enter into a tailspin of despair…at that moment all could be lost, the delay is frustratingly unpredictable and could it be perhaps, that you will eat up those early departure minutes, and the time for the journey and end up running to check in at your flight’s departure gate sweating, still checking that you picked up everything from your car as you flung yourself out of it at the car park and grabbed the items that you knew you had to take?

What about the sunglasses, which you had to keep in the car until the last minute because you might need them – even though you left in the darkness of an oh so early misty morning?

Then there is the relief and joy, car is parked, you are early, but you wait for the bus that circles “every ten minutes” it says, to take you from that far-flung collection of thousands of parked cars, to the departure terminal.

A tweak of concern…have you missed that being-early-window-of-opportunity to get to a check in desk without a line in front of it?

Will crowds swarm in all with problems with their tickets and stand crouching against the ticket counters while the airline employees have to wander off and ask about every single ticket, to check, to clarify, to sort out?

Then you get lucky… the bus comes, there is nobody waiting at any of the other bus stops and you fly (well glide jerkily as these buses do!) to the terminal unimpeded by the needs of another traveler, a family with kids who have to be helped individually onto the bus, while you wait, wait, wait. Off you go!

You get through to the counter and through the check-in process. All is well.

You go to the security line, wondering will this be quick or slow?

Will everyone in front of you have to remove a belt, a pair of boots, a bottle of water, send the body-scanners howling and be asked to walk through again for a re-match?

Or, will it all pass like a rapidly flowing mountain stream running sharply downhill and just keep going, like a Swiss watch?

OK. Well done! You are through! You have only to make a decision whether to look at the shops, make a phone call, have a coffee, a drink or a meal you are there in that magic suspension, the purgatorial space – the departure area.

But then you wait for you have to wait with an eye alert, an ear cocked for announcements about your flight – which gate? ON time? What else?

Have a good flight.

Oh magnificent buildings!

Parador is on Left - Ubeda, Andalucia

Ubeda – a less well known but an essential-to-visit gem of a town in Andalucia.

In the square by the church Sacra Capilla del Salavador is a key part of the ancient center of this most tempting of Andalucian towns. The town is richly thickened-with-buildings of ancient beauty including, next to the church the Casa del Dean Ortega – this palace is now the Parador of Ubeda. It is just the place to stay if you wish to feel the full sense of history while you are in Ubeda. You step out each day and with every touch of your shoes on the stones that make up the narrow roadways, the polished Plazas, beauty and fascination – you absorb atmosphere and a sense of the times, eras through which these stones have been here.

The palace, now the Parador, has had one major modification, a roof over the central courtyard, providing a place to sit or enjoy a drink before or after bouts of exploration.

Sitting before sightseeing inside the Parador, Ubeda, Andalucia

The high-ceilinged bedrooms have furniture, floors and windows which give all the right messages to create the feeling that you are a palace guest of another century enjoying the luxury of modern, completely and pleasingly-equipped bathrooms (yes, one other change the building has undergone!).

The furniture in each room suits the building. Solid, reasonably comfortable – though reading a book may suffer a bit as lighting in the rooms is not the brightest, something Kindle and iPad readers need not worry about!

There is a restaurant in the hotel – good to have, but so many streets and squares deserve your attention as do numerous cafes and other restaurants which provide new experiences around the town.

Tapas are often offered wherever you order a drink, as they would have been in the past and should be forver!  You can make a memorable meal of ordering a selection of these taste delights.

This is one town where to get an initial feel, flavor and orientation is aided by taking the tourist “train” which very jarringly and noisily moves you between the buildings and along often narrow streets and is a funny sort of child-like, palyful experience. A five Euro one (in 2011).

The church of Santa Maria de Los Alcazares is a right turn out of the Parador entrance and just 50 yards/meters on your left. This 13th century edifice was built over the remains of a mosque. It is a dazzling, impressive place to enter. Like many buildings of its long-standing there are now mixed features of many several epochs between its several chapels and its relatively more recent facade.

You are quite likely as I did, to find you will see more buildings of note, of history, of great architectural message and atmosphere than in many larger towns or cities. This is because you can walk to all of the many palaces, squares and churches with ease and little distance covered.

I stayed but one night here and will plan a three night stay as soon as I can to be able to absorb more, see places I missed and did not enter. Also t0 view again much I did see – it’s that impressive.

Parking is not difficult, but you can only stop opposite the Parador briefly to unload luggage and they will tell you where to park (free, in a nearby, 50-60 meters/yards away public parking area). Just do note that on a fiesta or holiday and in the middle of August it may take some effort to get to the center and parking could be hit or miss! But the palaces and the local people will wait for you. Magic moments in travel often come after a little determined effort!

WiFi is theoretically available throughout the hotel, in practice it does not (as is all too often the case in ancient buildings) work well in every room.

Rooms: 100-220 Euros for a double room per night.

Parador de Ubeda – book to stay

Travelling from France (Europe) to the UK is often a matter of making the timing work – if you seek a pleasurbale entry, a favorable arrival in that little old England.

The perfect solution I’ve found is a stay at La Matelotte – a four star hotel facing the sea at the mouth of the port of Boulogne. It has a 1 star Michelin restaurant and the next day the drive is about 25 minutes to Calais. A private garage is offered at 12 euros per night and the sandy beach and marine centre are right there, just across the road.

See it – try it – enjoy a treat in Boulogne on your way to Calais

Happy Travels,

Roger

I love  travelling to Loutro on theseold ferries…

Somebody said:

ferry travel is the most relaxing and enjoyable form of travel

I agree!