Moving on from Calatayud, I headed to Zaragoza. Unlike Calatayud, I had already been to Zaragoza. It is a large city, bustling with activity. A city both ancient and modern.
From Zaragoza’s train station, I took the bus toward the center of the older part of town, and headed on foot down Alfonso I toward the basilica of the Virgin of Pilar. My hotel was just across the plaza from the church.

I had stayed at this hotel before, but it had been many years before. When the great exposition was held in Zaragoza in 2008, the hotel had been totally redecorated, and raised it prices.
Prices had settled back down since, but the interior, once comfortable though worn, now had a bright antiseptic white theme, with silly names associated with each guest room.

The back of the cathedral faces the Ebro river, and at the front side is a huge plaza. This plaza is far longer than the width of the church, and at its west end a modern fountain cascades walls of water into a pool.

 

(The church you can see behind the fountain is not the basilica of Pilar, but rather the church of San Juan de los Panetes.)

The the back side of the fountain is an almost vertical mirrored wall.

You can see the tower of the San Juan church in the reflection and the towers of Pilar behind at we look east.

 

 

At the opposite (eastern) end of the plaza we can see a statue of the famous painter Francisco Goya, who once lived in the city. Just a bit further east is the impressive cathedral known as “La Seu”.

 

Now was a good time to head back west again, and move beyond the plaza to visit the central market. Although Spain has no shortage of supermarkets such as Mercadona, Dia, Hipercor, Eroski, etc., many still spend time shopping in a variety of bakeries, butchers, fruit stands, etc., which are sometimes grouped together in a covered market, such as the Central Market in Zaragoza. Inside are many dozen stands selling every imaginable type of food, from hanging hams, untold variety of sausages, fresh fish, and colorful fruits.

The market in Zaragoza is a good one, and every time I visit it I wish I was doing more than shopping with my eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving the area of the market, I head down Calle Temple, with a dense collection of bars and nightclubs. I have never been in this part of town late at night, and in Spain, nightlife doesn’t get started until long after I am sawing logs. But I will say that these have quite intriguing exteriors.

These two signs outside the Jardin on Calle Temple evoke figures from the Spanish deck of playing cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving the zone of nightlife behind, I cross the Avenida Cesár Augusto, named for the Roman emperor. Actually the town itself was called Caesaraugusta during the Roman Period, and its current name is the result of many hundreds of years of  corruption. (Think of what New Orleans will be called hundreds of years from now. N’awlins is already a few steps along the way in a similar process that created the name Zaragoza.)

I saw this small frog statue and had to add it here for Rhonda!

Continuing west, I can see the Mudajar tower of the San Pablo church peeking up from among various apartment buildings. The town has closed in around many monuments, and it becomes difficult to get a clear  open view of them! The next picture is a view of the entrance, as seen across a rather narrow street.

As we leave Zaragoza, I should mention that the fair of 2008 was on the two hundredth anniversary of the bloody siege of Zaragoza which occurred duringSpain’s war of independence as it sought to through off the yoke of French occupation under Napoleon’s troops. A flurry of civic improvements begun in preparation for the fair have led to more public works. Much of the city is torn up and disturbed by work on a new street car system.

Well, I speak of leaving Zaragoza, but it wouldn’t be for long! I had seen some posters announcing an event that would draw me back to town very soon! The opera! The circumstances are actually quite interesting… stay tuned.