The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly on the Plane

Well it rains a heck of a lot here!

At the moment I am in the land of Spain. First I was in Madrid, then Cordoba and now Seville. Each city has chucked it down with rain but it´s all part of the travel experience, I guess!

Madrid was just incredible. Nothing like I expected it to be - the same goes for Rosie (whom I met up with again for the time in Spain). There was an great culture and to find it all one needed to do was to walk down the back streets! Tapas in small bars or cafes was something I enjoyed - for every drink one has the bar must give a small portion of food - tapas. The back streets are also lined with little shops full of random things - bag shops, jewellery, etc, etc. It is fun just to wander and find things as you walk.

Yesterday we came from Cordoba. What an incredible place! It felt a little like we had come to the Middle East because of the different architecture everywhere. Cordoba has an amazing history - first discovered in 900 BCish and went through Roman, Christian, Muslim and Jewish eras. The main Mosque/Catherdral was an amazing mix of Islamic and Christian architecture. Rosie and I spent about an hour in here just looking an marvelling at the different details in the roof, walls and floors. It was just incredible. It was in Cordoba that Maimonides was born - who was one of my favourite people to study in Religion last year. It was so interesting to learn more about him and his influence on the Jewish way of life. He was a philosopher, a doctor and a Rabbi and wrote many controversial works for Judaism - many of which are used by Jewish people today. Very interesting!

The other interesting thing we have found is that many of the trees lining the roads are orange trees. Everywhere we go there are trees with oranges or mandarins on them. Some of the coutyards which are part of the Cathedrals are named ´The Orange Tree Courtyard´...very creative!

Now we are in Seville, which is bigger than Cordoba and more like a city. It is another nice place - apart from the rain! We are currently on an endeavour to find gumboots (or as the English call them: wellies). There are puddles everywhere and cars tend to splash pedestrians occasionally so the gumboots are kinda needed!

xx