Alhambra, etcetera

It seems I took 183 pictures at the Alhambra on Wednesday, so I´ll start with one of the most important ones, the cicas of the Alhambra:
These three cats, one adult and two kittens live in the Nassarid palace (the fanciest and best preserved part of the Alhambra) in one of the first rooms you enter. This courtyard is their home:

And people think I spoil Marmalade!

Here´s a picture of the Alhambra palace complex from the Generalife - the gardens and summer palace:
And here´s one of one of the gardens and me: (the gardens are very formal but beautiful)
So the Alhambra was obvioulsy very impressive - I´d upload more picture but it takes a long time, and I´m sure there are better pictures out there by professional photographers.

After a week + in andalucia, I have come to the conclusion that the Muslims were actually a really positive influcence on southern spain, at least compaired to the Christians who came after them. Their buildings are far more beautiful, and the Chrisitans often came along and destroyed part of a lovely islamic building to erect a run of the mill baroque church. (These are pretty too, but not nearly as, and there is one in every decent sized town in Europe.) The Muslims also allowed the Jews and Christians to live and work in their cities and towns (although I think they did charge them higher taxes.) When they regained power in the reqonquista, the Christians after killed or drove out all the Muslims and Jews they could identify, starting the spanish inquisition. (Although I do have to thank the Christians for the large quantity of bacon and pork served here in spain. Pork is the dominant meat on most menus, I think because historically you ate it to prove you were Chrisitan.) So while I may be tempted to think of modern day Islam as a somewhat backwards and violent religion, it seems it was not always practiced that way, and may have been better for everyone in Andalucia than Christistianity was.

Anyway, after the Alhambra, we rode the bus to Cordoba, where we are now. Yesterday we saw the Mesquita, which is beautiful, and would probably be even better if the Catholics hadn´t torn out the center of the mosque to build a large cathedral. Even Carlos the first, the spanish king who authorised the building, admitted that it had been a bad idea, because they´d destroyed something unique in the world to build something you can find anywhere (a baroque cathedral.) We also wandered around cordoba yesterday, seeing one of 3 surviving historic synagogues in Spain - it was used as a hospital for ´hydrophopes´- people with rabes - during the most anti-Jewish times in Spanish history. We saw the old city walls, some nice gardens, and a lovely display of large sculputures by a current Spanish sculptor in one of the squares. I bought myself some espadrilles, and I found the star earings I have been looking for to complete my Madonna costume in the Spanish equivalent of Claire´s. I was tempted to buy Pancake some tiny polkadotted flamenco heels, but since they were 15 euros I resisted. (And since Pancake is a boy.)

Last night I was able to check where I matched to - the Univeristy of Minnesota Internal Medicine program - my first choice. (Hooray!) So now I can start looking for new apartments in Seward or Prospect Park. If any Minnesotans reading this hear of good apartments in those areas, pass the info on to me!

Today some museums and possibly shopping in Cordoba, and on to Sevilla tomorrow!