One of the places we really wanted to see when we were in Andalucia was the city of Córdoba. What we particularly wanted to see there was the Mezquita (the old Moorish mosque) and to wander around the tangled maze of the Jewish Quarter. (Read all about it in my preview)

So with this in mind, and an pigheaded doggedness to book a hotel that was exactly right (when I say pig-headed doggedness, obviously I refer to a wish to please Mrs P and so avoid getting an earful for choosing a crappy hotel), I searched the net until my fingers bled, metaphorically speaking. I found a suitable one on a site called atrapalo.com - a Spanish travel site which is well worth checking out. I paid ? 53 per night room only - the rack rate for B&B is nearer ? 100 (? 1 = 67p approx.), not too shabby.

The hotel is located in the heart of Córdoba's old town. Did I say in the heart? Why it's right there slap bang in the left ventricle. The front door of the hotel is exactly 4m from the wall of the Mezquita. Any closer and we'd have been on first-name terms.
As it's so close to the Mezquita, it's almost impossible not to find it first-time, but just in case, it's sign-posted from the approach roads anyway.
As you drive into Córdoba from the motorway, it's hard to miss the Mezquita as it dominates the riverfront. A quick drive all the way around the monument and you're right at the entrance to the hotel's underground car-park. I'd recommend using this - one reason being that parking places are almost as rare as a Scottish National football team victory, the other reason being that parking is free for guests.
An elevator takes you up to reception.

The reception area is decidedly Moorish in theme with horseshoe arches at all the doorways, lots of frescoes, beautifully intricate ceramic-work everywhere and the gentle splitter-splatter of water tinkling from a couple of fountains. There are antiques dotted around - some ornamental, some in the form of furnishings such as the sofas and easy-chairs which are a convenient place to rest if there's a queue to check-in. There wasn't so we didn't.

The bar, restaurant and a souvenir shop all lead off from the reception area and occupy the ground level of the next building (or so it seems).

The hotel has 82 rooms spread over three floors around two inner courtyards. One courtyard is very pretty and continues the Moorish theme. It's used for breakfast in the morning and as a cafe throughout the rest of the day.
The other courtyard houses various appliances for the hotel and is anything but pretty. Guess which courtyard our room overlooked?
The rooms at the front of the hotel have a view of the Mezquita, which would've been nice, but as we only had to take a matter of 20-30 steps from our room to reach out and touch the place, it wasn't a major worry.

Our room was on the second floor and, as it's a pretty old building surrounding internal patios, the walls were a variety of shapes and sizes. I don't think there was one 90° angle to be found anywhere. That's not to say it was old and ricketty, far from it. The hotel was renovated in 1996 and again in 2000 (the '96 job must have been a bit dodgy).
The room was a combination of pastel greens and yellows of differing shades - the bedspread complimented this with a striped pale green and yellow (yes, it was horrible). Not my first choice of decor, but it was bright and very clean and some nice prints hanging on the walls added a homely touch.
The room was quite small, and so it felt a little cramped with the marble-topped bedside cabinets, mini-bar and desk with non marble-topped chair. We had large, firm and comfortable beds though - two 4.5ft beds pushed together. The wardrobe space, which was more than adequate, was behind mirror doors that took up one of the walls.
We had around 30 international channels on a good-sized TV and the AC kept the room icy-cold.

The bathroom made the room seem large. There was a 4-piece suite, well, 3.5 piece really, as the bath wasn't full-size. It was spotless with good lighting around the vanity area, plenty of fluffy towels and a veritable profusion of nick-nacks in the shape of shampoos, soaps, shower caps, combs, toothbrush and paste, etc etc. Still, it was a little cramped - thank goodness we didn't bring any swinging-cats.

I think the hotel has a fitness room, but I didn't go looking for it. Neither did we avail ourselves of the restaurant but we did have a drink in the bar. The bar was a cafe-style affair and served both simple meals and a wide choice of tapas. I expect the location had a lot to do with it, but it was extremely busy, mostly with day-trippers visiting the Mezquita.

In conclusion, this was a first-rate hotel that couldn't have been better located. It was a bit of a squeeze in the room, but it was comfortable enough and let's face it, when you're staying in the middle of a city like Cordoba, the hotel is really only someplace to sleep at night, and take a cooling siesta when the heat becomes unbearable.
I would have preferred a room at the front of the hotel with a view...of something, but at the price we paid, I wasn't complaining.
One downside about the hotel was that it wasn't soundproofed, or if it was, it wasn't done well (perhaps they'll catch that at the next round of renovations in a couple of years). Although there was no street noise at the back of the hotel, we could hear various rumblings from inside the hotel. Things like: people chatting on phones, laughing, arguing and babies crying, and what can only politely be described as a couple of 'honeymooners'. To be fair, the second night was a lot quieter,

Overall, I'd thoroughly recommend this hotel. as a central location in Cordoba, I don't think you could do much better.

©proxam2004