Before continuning my journey to Portugal I booked one last night at the hostel to make a day trip to Cordoba.

Cordoba is a beautiful old city with great architecture and history. It contains great remnants of its Roman and Moorish past. However to me and most Austrians the city is almost exclusively associated with Austrias football history.

“The Miracle of Cordoba” as it is called refers to a game during the 1978 World Cup in which the Austrian underdog team defeated its eternal archenemy Germany 3:2. The Germans call the same game “The Disgrace of Cordoba”. It had been the first time in roughly 50 years that Austria had won over Germany in football. In Vienna there even is a square called “Cordoba Square” named after this game.

In the morning I started my trip to Cordoba which was going to be less than a two hours ride. Once again the engine died riding in the 40 degrees heat at high speed for – apparently too long. I was already used to it and quite frankly expecting and waiting for it on longer stretches of road. In the mean time I had found out that this is a common problem with this particular engine. The engine of this bike is said to be one of the best “parallel-twin” motorcycle engines but they have this one issue where the engine dies randomly and not even BMW knows why this happens on these engines. Regardless the F650GS is one of the most sold motorcycle of its class.

Eventually I made it to Cordoba and my first goal was what Cordoba is actually most known for. The striped arches inside its  cathedral.

Once more what is now a Christian church was originally Moorish …

… and later converted and extended to a Christian church.

The Roman past of the city was visible with this wonderfully restored Roman bridge …

(I’m not sure what was burining there in the background.)

… and the Roman pillars left of this structure.

Before leaving Cordoba I made one last stop at a special place. The foodball stadium of Cordoba where the miracle happened almost 40 years ago.