Zaragoza

We are spending a few days planning our next steps. We drove from France and with each kilometre the landscape changed. Zaragoza is 653 feet above sea level and driving into the city you could be excused for thinking you were in an African desert. It is dry, arid countryside with very little greenery on the plains. Miles of motorways amongst the dusty plains with truck after truck going soemwhere in Europe, trucks from Romania, Poland, Germany....trucks parked up on sidings while drivers rest, where are they all going and with what are they all transporting?

The temps were again in the upper 30's and we have had two days where it cracked the 40degrees mark. Thank goodness a storm came in and broke the heat, in five minutes it dropped 10 degrees to 29degrees and the rain drops were as big as 50cent coins....refrehing!

The magestic Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar sits alongside the River Ebro and is said to rival St Peters, Rome, in size, its enormous!  It reflects the incredible history of Zaragoza, in the 10/11th centuries it was one of the Taifa kingdoms and a Muslim state, then came the Aragonese and after that the Spanish Revolution. The minurets and domes of the catehdral are stunning, lots of neck craning as we tried to take it all in.

The inside of the cathedral is as incredible as the outside, there are frescoes painted by Goya and even two unexploded bombs from the Spanish Revolution.

As Zaragoza is an inland city and beyond the city confines it really is dust and desert, the  plaza acts as the local meeting point for old and young. It was 40 degress and the fountains and water fonts were in great use by waders and kids paddling, delightful!

Every which way we turned in the plaza we saw something that you just had to stop and gaze at for a few minutes to take in all the detail.

Zaragoza is the home town of Goya and there are many monuments  honouring him, he is much loved by the Zargozians.

We couldn't figure out the purpose of this pillar box...... an early maildrop? It was so simply carved but beautiful in detail.

The sculpture below is by Pablo Serrano (1908 - 1985) and is the Angel of the City.

On the other side of the Angel is the Bishop of the City, the sculptures flank an impressive door into one part of the cathedral.

Just beyond the Plaza de Pillar are a collection or sculptures honoring  Goya. The Goya museum is also here. 

Zaragoza is an amazing place, so different from anywhere else we have been, its hard to belive we are still in Spain. The desert conditions on the outskirts, the city gardens and parks, the interesting history. Back in the 1980's ETA and Basque separatists were allegedly active in this area until the citizens took to the streets in protest saying they had had enough. 

There are approx 700,000 citizens here, employed largely in manufacturing and logistics. There is an enormous Opel car plant here and it also looks to be a major tranport and logistics hub. We are near the airport and daily see jet fighters zooming in to land as Zaragoza is home to the Spanish Airforce. America had a base here until 1991 and still uses it as a training site for US fighter squadrons based in Europe. With minurets, ancient Roman walls and theatres, Moorish archiecture and enormous air conditioned shopping malls it is a city of contrasts.

Sculpture of the day is of Demetrio Galan Bergua 1894-1970, a citizen of Zaragoza and much loved humanist, doctor and scholar .