Granada, Spain

OK, Granada. Some of you may know that I spent a couple weeks in Granada in 2004, and was seriously considering moving to Granada. 

We are staying at a cave house with a great view - here is a picture of a dinner al fresco:

And one bedroom in the cave house:

The main attraction in Granada is the Alhambra, a giant palace/fortress complex that was originally the ruling place of the Moors, until 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada. Most of the buildings retain their Moorish roots. The Alhambra has become so popular that you need to buy timed-entry tickets to see the palace. Which meant we had to get up very early and trek up a hill. But we took the road less travelled, and had the path to ourselves

And now, for pictures of the Alhambra itself:

And of course we need a picture of some of the cats - this is a feral colony with caretakers, so this is them laying around after a big meal. They were all ear-notched (left ear) except the tiny kittens 

In Granada, we also went to a science museum with an indoor bio-dome - like a cage-free zoo.

We got really close to the lemur

And I thought this toad was so cool:

They had an exhibit on how animals move that was amazing, these are taxidermied specimens. 

How are all of these animals being held up by the leopard's tail?

They have a sculpture of Einstein on a bench - Monte sat on his lap and started listing the things he wanted for Christmas. Maybe Einstein is the new Santa?

In Granada we also visited the cathedral, and the chapel where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried.

All over Granada and Córodoba, they have beautiful stone patterns on the ground, this is one of my favorites:

And here is the obligate food picture - paella mixta

Our last stop in Granada was the Abbey of Sacromonte. The story goes that sometime around 1500, they discovered the "lead books" at this site, dating from around 50 AD. These books, actually made of lead, told the story of the first Christians in Granada. They also found a burial chamber where the patron saint of Granada, Cecilio, was burned as a martyr. They have his ashes in the church. 

The interesting thing about the church was that there were stars of David everywhere - symbolizing wisdom, not Judaism. This was a strange sight to see:

The depiction of the crucifixion below is unusual for two reasons - the first is that the inscription above is in Hebrew, Latin, and Arabic. Can anyone find the second thing that makes this different than nearly all other crucifixion pieces? (Answer at the end of this post)

After we visited, I read on the internet that the lead books and ashes of San Cecilio are not accepted by the Vatican as real, and most experts believe they are fake. Oh well.

We are now in Antequera, we will be staying here for a month. Until now, we have been moving pretty quickly, now we are settling down a bit. Also trying our best to speak Spanish, with some success. More details about Antequera in the next post, but this is a striking landmark not far from town, that we can see from our patio.

It looks like a person laying on his back, and has been an important landmark in this area for more than 6000 years. More on that next time.

We didn't know that our wifi had a limit here, and the boys managed to gobble up the entire allowance watching videos. So we are restricted on speed, and internet is now painfully slow. Like 1998 dial-up slow. So that's fun.

Miss you all! XO

Kristi

Crucifixion answer - there are usually three nails, one in each hand and one through both feet. This one has four, one in each foot.