After driving 2.5 hours to Bergamo Airport near Milan and taking a quick and turbulent flight, I arrived with 4 other wives in Zaragoza, Spain. We jumped on a bus and headed to the center of town. I met up with Nick at Hotel Palafox. We were all hungry and tired, so we went out to have tapas at a tapas bar nearby called Lizarran. Spain is known for the tapas, and this place didn't disappoint. When you walk in the bar you grab a plate, and pick from savory or sweet tapas. The cold tapas are in a small glass refrigerator along the length of the bar, and the warm tapas are on top. The best are the fresh tapas they bring out from the kitchen, but the go fast! My favorite tapas was a warm banana wrapped with bacon. It was amazing! Later that night we all went out to Taberna La Piedra. It was the top rated restaurant in Zaragoza, and it was easy to see why! The food was out of this world! What we didn't expect was a show to go along with it! Apparently, the gay couple that owns the place was celebrating the 10th anniversary of their restaurant, so the "wife" put on a show for us! She wore women's clothes head to toe, and lip-synced about 7 different Spanish songs. With each new song she would put on a new outfit. One of the guys in our group was singled out because he was the only one without his wife present. The "lady" consistently tried flirting with him during her performances. Our friend was not really amused by the gesture, but the rest of us were laughing uncontrollably.
The men are all celebrating Mustache March by growing out their mustaches. Neither Sarah or I love mustaches, but we thought the tops were cute. :)
She was quite the diva!
The next day our husbands had to work, so I ventured through Zaragoza in the morning. As I walked toward Rio Ebro along the main road, I couldn't help but overhear the funny sounding conversations. In northeastern Spain, the Spaniards speak mostly Catalan, which is basically Spanish with a lisp. It's hilarious to hear someone say, "Grathiath," instead of "Gracias."
I didn't have high expectations of Zaragoza because I hadn't heard much about it, but I wasn't disappointed. I hit the main attractions in the downtown area. First, I walked through the mercado central, where locals were buying their produce for the day. I think I stuck out like a sore thumb because I was heads above the crowd.
Just beyond the market are roman ruins in the middle of the street.
Mercado Central
I tried to be sneaky and take a pic, but I looked at this picture later and realized he was looking right at me! (Along with the pigs! Yikes!)
Roman Ruins
Around the corner is the plaza of Our lady of the Pilar with beautiful turquoise fountains. There are three churches along the Plaza. The first has a leaning tower of Iglesia de San Juan, the second is the massive Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pilar, and the third is La Seo Cathedral. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pilar has a beautiful blue and yellow tile roof.
The towers of the Cathedral
Plaza of Our Lady of the Pilar
The one stone out of place in the Plaza
Don't look too closely there's some inappropriate graffiti on the world.
I snuck a pic while I was in the cathedral.
After walking inside the grand cathedral, I took a trip up to the top of one of the towers. I didn't stay long because it was only 45 degrees and the winds were blowing at about 50 km/hour. Scary! The view from the top was beautiful!
This may not look as scary in the photograph, but it was strange looking down the elevator shaft underneath my feet.
The Ebro River beneath the Puente de Piedra
One of my favorite views in Zaragoza!
I walked quickly along the waterfront to the Puente de Piedra, and then headed back to the hotel through the Plaza to meet up with the ladies.
Puente de Piedra
It's hard to tell from these photos, but I was having a hard time standing on this bridge because the winds were so strong that day!
La Seo Cathedral was more expensive and less impressive than Our Lady of the Pilar.
Calle Alfonso I was a quaint little street with fun shops just off of the Plaza.
I know this is supposed to be a capirote, but it looks very similar to an outfit worn by a much different group.
After I got back to the hotel, the girls and I went out to Ciudad de Dragon, a cheap Chinese restaurant, where they served egg rolls that were the size of burritos! Yum! And then walked along the streets for some site seeing and shopping.
That night Nick and I went out and bought our train tickets for Barcelona. (which were half the price than they were online) We grabbed some tapas again and got to chat with some of the locals. The people sitting next to us liked the tapas with blood pudding the best!
Barcelona, Spain - (Barthelona, Thpain)
The next morning we grabbed a delicious breakfast from our hotel. They had every fresh fruit and pastry you could imagine. Someone warned me to ask for cafe con leche (coffee with milk) instead of black coffee before I arrived in Spain because the quality of coffee is not the same as it is in Italy. It was great advice! The milk makes it taste a *little* better.
We started off to Barcelona at 7am on the AVE bullet train. I had a tight schedule since we were only going to be there for a day. The first place on our list was Casa Mila, a.k.a. La Pedrera. The apartment building was built by Antoni Gaudi, one of Spains well known architects and artists. There are virtually no straight lines on or in the building. It was a great way to start off our tour!
Standing in the cold train station at 7am in Zaragoza.
Standing on the rooftop of Casa Mila.
The view of Sagrada Familia from Casa Mila
The apartment on the tour is decorated like it would have been when the building was finished in 1910.
The attic of Casa Mila has descriptions, models, and inspiration from Gaudi.
Here you can see most of his inspiration came from nature. The tiles in the apartment were shaped like a honeycomb.
Next we headed over to Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family). Gaudi also designed this church which they're hoping to finish by 2028- 100 years after he died. The line was already long, so we headed to La Ramblas (the stream), which is the main road in Old Town, Barcelona. We started our walk in Plaza de Catalunya with thousands of pigeons, and then proceeded down the mile long road. We passed people selling birds, flowers, and hot waffles. (what a combination!) We stumbled across a fountain: Font de Canaletes. Supposedly, if you drink from the fountain you will return to Barcelona, and if you kiss your hand and touch the fountain it will bring you good luck. Nick took a good swig.
There were a few other people there with us. :)
We headed down further to La Boqueria; it's a large, crowded market just off of La Ramblas. It's filled with fresh fruit, seafood, meat, and more! We took Rick Steve's advice from his tour book, and took a picture of Juan, a sweet old man, at his Pinotxo Bar.
Cute little Juan. :)
The seafood was still moving!
We spotted this gentleman a mile away. He was wearing a purple dress! "Rule!" So Nick had to get a picture of him. (Purple is his squadron color) The man was English, and he was out with his friends for a bachelor party.
The next stop was just off La Ramblas in the Plaza Reial dotted with palm trees and full of street performers.
We headed toward the Columbus Monument where Christopher Columbus debarked after returning from America, and walked along the Rambla Del Mar toward the Maremagnum.
We tried to catch a bus to the Barri Gotic area, but they weren't running on Saturday (what?!), so we walked. Barri Gotic is the Gothic Quarter and the birthplace of Barcelona. We walked through the Plaza de Sant Jaume, under the Carrer del Bisbe Bridge to the front of the Cathedral of Barcelona.
I loved this "park" in the middle of the city. It has 1.5 trees! Haha!
This bridge reminds me of The Bridge of Sighs in Venice. Barri Gotic was beautiful!
Nick decided that he wants to make candles after seeing this little candle store. :)
Cathedral of Barcelona
After grabbing a quick drink, we headed over to Santa Maria Del Mar. ..yet, another church! This one was less impressive after seeing the other two Cathedrals. If I had to do it again, I would have spent more time in the Barri Gotic, instead of visiting this small church.
We happened to walk by the Palace Reial on our way to Santa Maria del Mar
I loved seeing these bright red bikes in front of the old palace. :)
Santa Maria del Mar was pretty, but less impressive...
We got back on the metro to see if the line to the Sagrada Familia was smaller. It looked like it hadn't moved an inch, so we decided to just get in line and wait it out. If I could recommend one church in all of Europe, it would be this one. See for yourself! It is so different and so beautiful! The last time Nick was here was in the summer of 2006 with the Prin soccer team. He said the floors at that time were just dirt, but now they were completely finished.
I can't wait to see this church finished, and without all of the cranes and construction.
It was so much more stunning in person!
We took the elevator ride up to the top to get a great view of the city!
This just shows how different Gaudi's work is from any other architect. He puts Trix and Fruity Pebbles on his church! :)
Nick thinks he took a picture on top of this turtle when he was here in 2006, so we had to try and take one again! We got some dirty looks, but we did it anyway!
Make a grumpy face, Nick!
This face of Jesus is inverted so that no matter where you're standing, it always looks like he is looking at you.
After walking through Sagrada Familia we were getting pretty tired, and the only thing left on my list was Montjuic. (Mount of Jews) We took the funicular and the tram up to the top to explore the castle.
Instead of riding the tram back down to the Magic Fountains, we decided to walk. (BAD DECISION) It was at least a 2 mile walk to try and find the fountains from the top of the mountain, and on our way we passed the Olympic Stadium where there was a Justin Bieber concert going on! I've never seen or heard so many screaming girls!
Never in my life did I ever think I would be so close to a JB concert!
After walking about 3 miles, we finally found the fountains and we were pleasantly surprised!
It was hard to capture a good pic of the show. The fountains changed color, and music was being played over the loud speakers. It was a great way to end our day!
Apparently, we walked right past some of our friends from the squadron when we were at the fountains...but, we never saw them!
We only had an hour until our train left, so we grabbed a quick bite at the local bread store called Pans & company. We thought it would be similar to a Bread Co. in STL, but it was more like a fast food restaurant.
The food might have been a bit greasy, but we had a tree in the middle of our table. :)
Right before we got on the train, we grabbed a few sweet treats for the ride home at Tutti Frutti. You grab an empty bag and fill it as full as you want with any kind of candy! Perfect for a train ride!
We both loved our quick paced, (8+ mile) adventure to Barcelona. There's so much to see there! I would highly recommend going and seeing the city for yourselves! Next time I go back I want to try churros and chocolate, and see more of the barri gotic...and more!
What a great adventure!!! Nick looks like Inspector Clouseau with his mustache!~;-D
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