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.