Saturday in the park

July 25: Blowout breakfast at the Hotel Conquistador. A promenade in Cordoba takes us through the old town to the Jardines de la Victoria. We picked up loads of garbage from late night parties and fished a can out of the duck pond. We delighted in seeing a duckling chasing after mum, and tried to identify a bird not known to us. We reached the station by chance and stopped by to purchase our tickets for the train to Malaga tomorrow. We checked out a breakfast venue also. We emerge into a long linear park, past the bike hire rack, which contains the old railway station and a steam engine. The tracks have been buried underground in recent times in what is an imaginative urban renewal scheme. The park contains many varieties of trees, including date palms and orange trees, and seems to have succeeded in creating an elegant urban space.

To the Plaza de Colon and back to the hotel via a pleasant shopping district at the Plaza de las Tendilles. I am wobbling in the heat. Annette went on to the Julio Romero de Torres Museum while I watched the qualifying from Hungary - Spaniard Fernando Alonso on the pole - and the Tour de France - Spaniard Alberto Contador in first place. Spain is also glowing about the Grand Prix debut of Jaime Alguersuari, who is already receiving the big build-up on TV, but fails to impress on the track. A freak accident involving Felipe Massa in a Ferrari may open the door to Marc Gené, another Spaniard, competing in the Hungarian Grand Prix.