Blogs from Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, Europe

A triplet of historically appropriate greetings from the next stop on our travels – Zaragoza, the capital of the province of Aragon. And what a surprising little gem this place is. While not likely to replace a number of Spain's tourist hotspots, Zaragoza is a quiet achiever, and we have had little difficulty occupying ourselves during our five days here, albeit we have not been going at it at a cracking pace either; like the town we have been quietly achieving. Within our first 15 minutes here we were introduced to the main elements that define Zaragoza – from our arrival at the huge Delicias transport intermodal (aptly described in the guidebooks as “Space age but sterile”), our taxi ride past the Aljaferia castle – the northern stronghold of the muslim empire built before the Alhambra ... read more

Pues nada, oye... que me voy a hacer el Transmongoliano!!! Probablemente, a muchos de vosotros os sonará más la palabra Transiberiano, pero en realidad, lo que voy a hacer los próximos días va a ser un una parte de la mítica línea férrea rusa para luego bajar por Mongolia y llegar hasta Beijing. Antes de nada sería recomendable explicar el por qué hago este viaje y cuándo me lo empecé a plantear en serio. Y las explicaciones a este respecto son un poco difusas. Sí que recuerdo que hace tres o cuatro años leí un diario de viaje de unos chicos que habían hecho el Transmongoliano y luego, en el mismo viaje, habían seguido por Nepal y demás. Aquello me dejó impresionado. Jamás me había planteado hacer un viaje tan largo, no tanto por el número ... read more

Blog 58 was supposed to be so short as to be non-existent. No such luck. We packed our bags, loaded the car and set Miss GPS for the road out of Madrid. Simple? Of course it was. We were on our way to Zaragoza for a stop-over before heading to Barcelona , a total of 600 kilometres over two days. Once we were safely on the A2 we put Miss GPS to bed because all roads were heading for Zaragoza We were smiling away thinking how good we are at this navigation thing and missing all the toll roads. But as we know, pride comes before a fall. Just as we came to the appropriate exit we were confronted by a Police barrier and Road Closed sign. No alternative but to continue on and thankfully the ... read more

The Aljaferia is the most important civil building in the history of Zaragoza. It was a muslim palace for the monarch Abu-Yafar during the XI century (Aljaferia means "the house of Abu-Yafar"). Later, after the Reconquest, it was enlarged and it became a christian palace. The new lounges were built in the mudejar style. "Mudejar" was the word used for the muslims that were allowed to live in the reconquered territories; many of them were cheap labor in the construction of new buildings but their legacy was that the previous muslim architectonic style remained in the new christian buildings. Then, this palace became the residency of the Catholic Kings in the XV century, the seat of the Inquisition tribunal and its dungeons, a fort in XVII century and barracks in XVIII century. Today is the seat ... read more