Sunday, June 22, 2014

The city of Zaragoza, Spain

The hotel where the workshop was held was on the outskirts of Zaragoza, so we didn’t see much of the city. Despite the ultra modern surroundings of the hotel, Zaragoza is a very old town with a lot of history. On Friday night after a day in the field our wonderful Spanish hosts decided it was time to see a bit of the city and taste some traditional tapas. They also showed us a few sights of the old town including the main Plaza de Pilar and the remains of the Roman amphitheatre. 
One of the old traditional tapas bars

The remnants of the Roman Amphitheatre

However, after the meeting I stayed an extra day in Zaragoza to explore some more. So after finding a central hotel in Plaza d’Espania, I headed to the Basilica de Pilar. It was great to escape the heat of the day. Then when it cooled down a little more after 5:30pm I walked around the town and went to the Pablo Gargallo art gallery and checked out some of the Moorish influenced architecture. A little later there was a music festival with lots of different stages in the different plazas with local musicians and dancers of different flavours. A fun evening wandering between different plazas checking it all out.
The castle

Lots of Moorish influenced buildings

The basilica from the river side


Sunday morning before it got too hot I did a little more exploring around the city before taking the fast train (>250 km/hr) to Barcelona. (There should be more fast trains in the world - great way to travel). 

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