Zaragoza!

We’re spending 2 days in Zaragoza, which was not somewhere we had planned to go, but we’re both delighted that we have.  It has an interesting history, starting with the Romans, who founded the city, calling it Caesaraugustus, which eventually sounded like Zaragoza.  There are Roman ruins under the city square that we found interesting. In Roman times the Ebro River was one of the great rivers of the known world, up to a kilometre wide and was the major trade route between the Spanish hinterland and the Mediterranean, making Zaragoza an important port.

More recently, Zaragoza featured famously in the Peninsular war, revolting against Napoleonic French domination and withstanding 2 sieges of the city in 1808-10.  Apparently everyone in the city fought, including women and children, and it was typhus that eventually defeated them.  The French lost 4 to 5,000 troops in house to house fighting.  You can read about it at http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitios_de_Zaragoza. 

Interestingly, our apartment is called Casa Palacio de los Sitios, and its picture is featured in the article.  The city defenders had their powder magazine near here, which blew up during the siege and ours is one of the few old buildings left standing in this part of town!  The city was further trashed during the Spanish Civil War, not that its obvious now.

We’ve had some excellent tapas here, spending our first night sampling food at a couple of different bars until about midnight.  Lunch yesterday was particularly good because we chanced on a very helpful waiter who had enough English to explain what it was we were ordering!  When he didn’t have  the word, he drew us pictures. We also taught him the English word, eggplant, which he found a surprising name for a purple/black vegetable, until we explained that it was named for its shape!

Just fantastic food.

A quick word about the sights of Zaragoza. Zaragoza is a large regional centre, a university town, and has some major Mudejar inspired buildings. The Cathedral is one, mudejar on the outside, but very Gothic inside, with soaring vaulted ceiling and huge golden decorations at the top of each vault. It has an unusual square plan, with side chapels all richly decorated in gold. The atmosphere inside the church was increased by the organist playing classical pieces of music during our visit. The other main church is El Pilar, a huge structure with four distinctive towers and lots of domes. A bit like a barn inside, but lovely on the outside, especially when lit up at night, or viewed from the extensive parks across the river.

We’ll spend this morning sightseeing here before heading further north.  When I booked our next stop I had thought I was booking a place to stay just outside Huesca, but on the basis of the driving time on the Michelin website, I suspect we will be at the end of a long, winding road on the top of a mountain tonight!  Whatever, we won’t have the internet again until we get to Torla on Sunday evening.

Street art in Zaragoza

Zaragoza has a really nice vibe.  A lot like Melbourne in many ways - lots of bikes and bike lanes, trams and street art.  Just swap the cafes for tapas bars!

 

 

 

Impressive street art.  We snapped all these within a couple of blocks from our apartment.

24 hours in Teruel

Teruel is a university town northwest of Valencia. It was important in the Christian reconquest of Spain (just about everywhere in Spain qualifies for that), but its legacy lies in the fact that the Moors and the Jews of Teruel came to an arrangement with the rulers, and offered their considerable building and artisan skills to the task of rebuilding. The style of architecture that resulted is called Mudejar, incorporating patterned brickwork, with tile inlay, arched windows, and turrets or domes. Teruel is one of the best places to view this type of decoration, in four towers which dominate the town, now UNESCO listed, and in its Cathedral and churches.

 

Wandering the old town would be very pleasant on a lovely day, because of the Mudejar architecture and also for its modernist houses, dating from the 1900s, when the middle classes has enough money to invest in new styles of housing. However, it was quite chilly on the day we spent here, so we chose to visit a church associated with the Legend of the Lovers of Teruel.

This is a well-know Spanish story, an Iberian Romeo and Juliet - boy and girl fall in love, are refused permission to marry, girl is married off against her will, boy asks for one last kiss, is refused, drops dead at her feet, girl dies, they are buried together. It has inspired many novels, paintings, music, etc. When two bodies were discovered in the church, buried together, it was assumed that they were the Lovers, and in about 2005, a mausoleum was built for to commemorate this great love story.

The Spanish love it. The day we were there, a class of 6-7 year olds were acting out the love story in the cloisters to oohhs and aahhhs of admiring onlookers. We weren’t so interested in the Lovers themselves, but the associated church was absolutely gorgeous inside, with vaulted ceilings, lovely stained glass, deep blue painted ceiling with gold stars, and rich red, blue and gold medieval patterns decorating the walls.

The other Teruel claim to fame is the Cathedral, also built in the Mudejar style on the outside with decorated tower, crenellated main dome and smaller domes, but quite plain inside except for its amazing coffered ceiling. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures and we had to be part of a tour (only Spanish speaking), but this at least gave us plenty of time to admire the detail on the ceiling, which consists of wooden panels, decorated with painted or sculptured heads, each different, of kings, queens, nobles, churchmen, artisans. Other decorations include animals, both real and mythological, scenes of every day life at court, at the hunt, making music, or religious pictures. I bought two bookmarks to remind me of how glorious this was.

A quick tapas lunch – such variety of choices. It makes boring old sandwiches seem quite – well – boring. The sun is making an appearance, so perhaps our decision to head further north is a good one. 

The rain in Spain falls mainly – everywhere at the moment

Yep, the weather has been a bit of a disappointment in Spain. Apparently, there’s a huge cell off the UK, which is driving wet weather in from the Atlantic and just about everywhere is not only wet, but cold as well. We have now met several couples whose travel plans are in limbo because of this. Strangely, they were all Australians!

We have nevertheless been enjoying our slower travelling pace through the central regions of Spain, as we make our way north towards Torla. With some time on our hands, we opted for a walk in the Sierra de Albarracin National Park to view some prehistoric rock art.

The walk was along a gorge of red sandstone, the same as used in Albarracin buildings, which had weathered into some interesting shapes and colours. Boulders and huge slabs from the rocks above had tumbled into the gorge.  The whole area was a maze of rock shelters, caves and outcroppings of huge cliffs, interspersed with pines.

In all, we found five separate prehistoric sites, set in a natural amphitheatre of cliffs, jumbled rocks and pine. Some of the paintings were quite clear, such as a frieze of cattle in white on the darker rock. Others were harder to make out as they had weathered quite badly, or were quite small. There was one in red with deer being hunted by tribesmen. The deer’s antlers were clearly depicted. Another consisted of carvings of three men, with belts, and holding sticks or arrows. The walk alone was lovely, but to see this art was very special. All the information was in Spanish, but we could work out that the art dated from about 5,000 to 2,500 B.C.

After our picnic lunch in the forest, we retraced our steps back to the car to head to Teruel, where we planned to spend the night. We disobeyed TomTom and took a route that allowed us to enjoy more of the National Park, noticing that there was a gradual improvement in the weather as we travelled through lovely pine forests, and then through beautiful rolling agricultural land. The season here is not nearly as advanced as in Sicily, and the wheat is still bright green, giving wonderful views across green fields, with red poppies and yellow and white daisies along the roadside. Just like a postcard, really.

Albarracin the Red

We have been staying in the small village of Albarracin, a walled town, with castle. This morning, we explored the town before the tourists arrived (we are travellers, not tourists).  But we needn’t have worried, as we have discovered that we are still well before the main season and the place is pretty quiet. Which is an understatement – there are several enormous car parks just out of town with nothing in them, and about 12 tourists in the whole town at any one time!

This is a seriously picturesque village of hanging houses, some several stories high, with wooden balconies and not a straight line or square angle anywhere. Unfortunately, the Catedral is undergoing restoration so is only open as part of a guided tour in Spanish, as is the Castillo at the very top of the village. Not to worry. We can freely explore the walls above the town, with equally good views down over the village and into the gorge.

 

From our vantage point high over the village, we can see various walking trails and we decide to do a walk with a picnic lunch included. Off to buy some jamon, quesos (we now know the word for cheese), and bread. We even include a bottle of red wine – it is funny how we can always seem to work out the alcoholic beverages. There is a mutter of thunder just as we are finishing our picnic, over within 10 minutes,  and we end a lovely walk around the base of the cliffs at Albarracin by taking a shortcut back to our hotel via the road tunnel under the town. Later in the afternoon, we walk up to a hermitage above the town for more views of this picturesque site.

Our language skills are being extended all the time. I can now order decaf coffee, with milk, can buy cheese as well as jamon, and tonight, we order tapas at a busy little cafe – salad, anchovies and – yes – jamon and quesos, con pan. Oh, to be so multi-lingual. Mind you, we did also ask for the English version of the menu! BTW, we really like the Spanish version of ham – not as salty as proscuitto, and a bit more gamey.

Pip’s advice is to forget about the language, and just get out and enjoy the night life and sangria. We would – except we can’t find any nightlife – we are in such a small place before the main tourist season, and there is no night life to speak of!  As for sangria – it’s about 5 degrees after sunset!  Gluhwein anyone?

Cuenca cliffs

We wake this morning to weather that has become overcast and cool, with rain threatening. In spite of the weather, our plans are to walk the cliffs of the Jucar Gorge at Cuenca to the lookout point over the town. Not 5 metres from our hotel these plans seem thwarted by a fun run which has closed the roads up to our accommodation, which is 7 km out of town. The Guardia Civil explained this to us in his non existent English, and we comprehended it in our non existent Spanish. Philippa, where are you when we need you? (More of that later).

If you can’t beat them, join them, so we become spectators with all the locals, shouting, venga! (go), and other bits of Spanish, and clapping, which thankfully requires no language skills at all.

Finally, the road is open and we head into town, to try to park. Through more good luck than management, we manage to a) find the right road, b) find a free park, and c) find our walk, all with minimal fuss and bother. Phew.

We spend most of the morning walking up the Camino de San Julian del Tranquillo, to a vantage point high above the valley floor, with views up to the medieval village perched on the cliffs.

It is almost mid-day, and we can hear the sound of singing from the Sunday church services, and then at midday, all the church bells in Cuenca ring out for 5 minutes, echoing along the gorge, a surreal experience.

All along the path are wildflowers, red and orange poppies, white and yellow daisies, pink and white thyme, yellow euphorbia, and many other herbs. (J took 47 flower photos on this walk. I know this because I just counted them!)  We walked through pine forest on the heights, and poplar and may bush lower down.

M spends time admiring the skills of the rock climbers, in particular at a section where there are about 5 climbers in a row.  The locals are enjoying their Sunday walks, and plenty of road and mountain bikes are out. Its a really nice atmosphere.

 

Time to head off to Albarracin, our next port of call, via a very scenic road through the Serrania de Cuence, a large National Park of very wild country, with river gorges, cliffs and pine forest. We stop at the various lookout points along the way to admire the rugged country, though we don’t have time to do the walk in the so-called Enchanted Forest.

The weather is cooler but no rain yet and we make good time to Albarracin, which is a gorgeous small town built of pink/red rocks, with the most amazing castle walls enclosing the surrounding hills.

We are staying at a small hotel, with views of the pink stone castle. From our window, we can hear the constant sound of the small stream in the park opposite. Lovely, (except with the window open, we create a draught which pulls in the smell of cigarette smoke from the entire building – not pleasant. Obviously, the Spanish haven’t got the no-smoking message yet as it seems that the majority of the population smoke heavily, and everywhere).

Knowing that the Spanish eat late, we don’t rush out to dinner, only to find that by 9.15 the whole town seems deserted. We are obviously ahead of the main tourist season, but surely the locals have to eat somewhere? Finally, we spot two other people in this all but deserted town, and follow them along a narrow lane (this town is almost car free due to the steep site), and find a bar, the equivalent of the local pub, where the soccer is on the TV for the pleasure of the diners. It seems to be the only place open in town, and we do what the locals do, eat and watch the match (at least M does).

Fortunately, this menu has an English translation, so we have some idea what we are ordering. I ask the waiter how to pronounce the word for beer – who would have thought it was cerveza. We had tried beer, bier, birra, and beir all to no avail. Fortunately, white wine was pretty easy. I now can ask donde (that has come in handy – where), pan (bread), vino blanco, buenos dias e buenas tardes, muchos gracias (thank god for westerns with Mexicans but why don’t they talk more about food? We also know jamon, but don’t yet know cheese, or much other food. This is where we need Pip to help us eat. We might just come back shadows of our former selves.

Back to the hotel to research some Spanish before bed. Who said travel wasn’t educational?

Hola Spain

Right, that’s about the limit of my Spanish. A day of travel, from Valletta to Cuenca. All went smoothly, the steering wheel is on the left again and we are driving on the right (when I remember to) in a brand new VW Polo.  Sounds nice, but its unleaded, and gutless!  Roads in Spain seem excellent so far, and drivers here are much more conservative and considerate that either Sicily or Malta, so I’m having to make adjustments!

We spent the evening exploring the historic centre of Cuenca with its hanging houses, and dined on tapas in the square.  Being Saturday evening, the place was packed, with a great atmosphere. We came here for the old city, but didn’t realise that Cuenca is at the junction of two river gorges, so is very scenic, with walking trails along both gorges, with views of the cliffs above and the river with beautiful trees. The cliffs are weathered into fantastic shapes with lots of lookouts and promontories. 

Themistocles Zammit and other obscure Maltese facts

So, we did enjoy our stay in Malta and here’s a few other reasons why:

Toilets – really, sniggering aside, they are important and they can sometimes determine whether a place is merely good or excellent. And I would have to say that Malta does public toilets well. Clean, working, paper, soap dispensers with soap, paper towels or even hand driers, and all well sign-posted. And in every town and village. What’s not to like? Compared to Italy …

Gardens – Malta does great gardens, planted on every roundabout, roadside verge not to mention the Upper and Lower Barrakka gardens.

Rubbish, or should that be lack of rubbish. Malta has a garbage collection and the people know what that means and how it works, unlike Italy, where the theory is there, but … There are even men with brooms and dust pans cleaning up in public places.

Quaint echoes of ye olde England. Grocers, bootmakers, provisioners, the list goes on and on, a relic of the days when this was obviously an important stop for the navy. Just travelling on the local bus and looking at some of these old shops and signs made us laugh.

This must be the smallest store ever, just a door width across.

Houses - Malta has very little timber, which was mostly cut down in prehistoric and Phoenician times. The building material of choice is stone. Houses, road edgings, cuttings, sheds, fences, bus shelters, all built of beautiful stone. Houses here feature vaulted ceilings with stone arches,  and arched windows, to give the structure some strength. It makes the houses in the ugliest villages quite appealing.

Even the famous hanging windows are sometimes inserted in arches. These balconies were the only timber we saw used in buildings.

Churches – big, gold, over the top, but like beautiful jewels – often featuring domes.

Finally, Sir Themistocles Zammit, or Temi to his friends. If you had to make up the name of an archaeologist from the Indiana Jones school of archaeology for a novel you were creating, you surely couldn’t think of anything more fanciful than Sir Themistocles Zammit. He was professor of chemistry, a medical doctor, an historian and  an archaeologist, who was responsible for some of the major prehistoric finds on Malta around the turn of the century - the prehistoric temples of Tarxien, Hagar Qim, the Hypogeum, Phoenician rock tombs, findings spanning Phoenicia to Roman times – yep, he was your man. BTW, he won his knighthood for working on the transmission of Brucellosis to humans.

Decorative work on a prehistoric inner temple doorway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now off to Spain.