The AVE from Seville Santa Justa to Cordoba takes exactly 40 minutes at speeds that make the Guadalquivir plain blur past the window. Trains run throughout the day; advance booking at Renfe is around €15 to 25 single. Cordoba station is 1.5 kilometres northwest of the historic centre; the No. 3 bus reaches the Mezquita in ten minutes, or a taxi costs approximately €8.
The Seville Marathon runs in late February. Cordoba in February is between seasons in a way that specifically benefits the visitor. The Patio Festival (Festival de los Patios Cordobeses) - when private households open their interior courtyards for public viewing - runs in May. The Semana Santa Holy Week processions run in March or April. February is before both, which means the Juderia and the Mezquita are operating without the crowd pressures that both events bring. The temperature is 12 to 16°C and the Guadalquivir is running fast with winter rainfall.
The Mezquita
The Mezquita-Catedral de Cordoba is a mosque begun in 785 and expanded repeatedly until 1009, creating a hypostyle hall of 856 columns in 35 rows, topped by striped red-and-white horseshoe arches in alternating brick and stone. A Christian cathedral was built inside the mosque after the Reconquista, directly displacing the central nave. Walking through the Mezquita is one of the stranger spatial experiences in European architecture: the columns repeat in every direction, the light filters through the arched windows in a way that makes depth difficult to judge, and the shift into the Christian cathedral at the centre is jarring in a way that 500 years of coexistence have not resolved. The site is flat throughout. Entry is approximately €13; book online to avoid the queue.
The Juderia and Alcazar
The Juderia (Jewish Quarter) surrounds the Mezquita on three sides - whitewashed lanes with geraniums on iron grilles, the occasional Roman column embedded in a wall, the smell of jasmine in February at the warmer moments of the afternoon.
The Sinagoga de Cordoba on Calle de los Judios is one of only three surviving medieval synagogues in Spain, built in 1315 and converted to Christian use after the 1492 expulsion.
The Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (Castle of the Christian Monarchs) sits on the Guadalquivir riverbank. The gardens - formal Moorish-influenced water gardens with long rectangular pools and orange trees - are largely flat and open Tuesday to Sunday.
Where to Eat
El Churrasco on Calle Romero is the classic Cordoba restaurant for traditional rabo de toro (braised oxtail) and salmorejo (the Cordoba variant of gazpacho: thicker, richer, garnished with hard-boiled egg and jamon).
Getting Back
AVE services from Cordoba to Seville Santa Justa run throughout the day until around 22:00. The journey remains 40 minutes.