I knew it was going to be a good day for exploring when we arrived at Porto, it took us about 30 minutes to cover the first 200 meters. Ton and Kit were taking pictures every few steps while Stephen and I walked along talking.
This was our first sight coming out of the metro station.
Porto is famous for blue tiled buildings and as soon as we left the train station there was a nice church with blue tiled art. Then we walked about 50 meters and there was a street of town homes that were full of interesting facades.
The street of townhomes.
As we walked down the street and Ton and Kit burned thru data taking pictures, we came upon a large food market that drew us in. The market was full of mostly tourists and many were on food tours of Porto. While there were a lot of tourists it was also a functioning market for the residents of the neighborhood. Once again Ton and Kit were in heaven.
Slicing ham, a common site in Spain and here in Porto.
So after about an hour we were heading into the town itself, but we had to make one more detour to visit the cathedral with its views of the river and the town of Gaia on the other side.
Looking across the Duoro River. Many of the buildings in the picture are port wine producers.
We finally arrived at our original destination which was a very beautiful street. We enjoy Porto because the streets are full of interesting architecture. But Porto makes you earn the views. It is built on a steep hill and you are either walking up hill or down hill, there is no flat in Porto.
One of the many beautiful street scenes in Porto.
One of the most beautiful streets is currently under construction as they are adding another line to their metro which will run under the old town. But there was more than enough other unobstructed views to entertain us.
The Church of the Clergy.
It was graduation week for the University of Porto. In Portugal they have a charming tradition that the graduates the week before graduation raise money for the ceremony. They dress in their gowns and go out and put on performances for donations. Some are quite clever. 6 of the students put on a private show for me, the deal they struck was that they would get all of the change in my pocket for the show. I asked them what happens if I have no change, they said I win. They then did a little dance number and song for the €4.50 in change I did have in my pocket.
One of the groups of students doing a dance with canes.
At this point we were hungry so we were watching for a restaurant as we walked. We finally saw a little bistro that was doing booming business. We were lucky to get the last empty seat in the place. I ordered a Francesinha which is a decadent sandwich popular in Porto. It is actually a 20th century creation and is based on the French Croque-Monsieur. I have had both the Croque-Monsieur and the Francesinha and I am on team Portugal.
My Francesinha consisting of bread, ham, pork, cheese, and an egg swimming in a sauce of beer and tomato. It is decadent.
At this point we were all feeling the effects of the climbing and decided to head back to the campground. It took us another 45 minutes to reach the metro station as there were still plenty of photos to take and shops to explore.
Blue tile art from the train station in Porto.
Porto once again did itself proud, the weather was perfect, and while it was crowded with tourists and college students, it still maintained its charm and character. When we returned to the campground we all relaxed in preparation for a return trip tomorrow.
This book store is supposed to have inspired JK Rowlings Hogwarts. It is now the center of the Harry Potter universe and requires a ticket purchased in advance to get in.
We had delayed our long drive to Porto for a day, but today we had to cover almost 400 kilometers. It was raining steadily when we left the campground in Salamanca. In fact it rained for most of the trip today.
Crossing the border into Portugal. With rain on the window.
The roads were very quiet in Spain as the area between Salamanca and the Portuguese border is very rural. Because it was Sunday there were very few semi-trucks on the road as semi’s need special permits to drive on Sunday so there are almost no trucks on the road. This makes it a great day to cover long distances.
Looking down on a village just after crossing into Portugal. There was a lot of Scotch broom in bloom. You can also see the storm clouds in the background.
Once we crossed into Portugal the traffic picked up as eastern Portugal seems to have more population than western Spain. Also eastern Portugal is much more mountainous than I remember from our last trip.
Another mountain village from the toll way in eastern Portugal.
Once we dropped down to the Porto metropolitan area the rain stopped and the sun came out. When we arrived at the campground before they would let us enter we had to confirm we had a reservation. The shoulder season when you don’t have to make reservations is getting narrower and narrower. Fortunately we had made reservations and were allowed to enter.
A piece of art on the boardwalk made completely from discarded plastic found on the beach.
After we settled in we decided to relax by playing a form of rummy. None of us knew how to play four handed rummy, so we made up our own rules and proceeded to play 10 hands. We really enjoyed our brand of rummy and decided to call it Portuguese Rummy.
A tidal pool on the beach at Vila Cha.
We went down to the beach for a quick walk. The sun was still shining and everyone enjoyed exploring the beach and some of the tidal pools in the area.
The Atlantic Ocean, it is quite a contrast from the Mediterranean.
After the beach we went back for a nice dinner that Kit prepared. We didn’t get around to dinner until almost 8pm, someone joked we had finally adjusted to a Spanish meal schedule just in time to leave Spain. While the day mostly consisted of driving, we still had a very enjoyable afternoon.
It has been raining hard on and off for the last couple of days. Over night it rained really hard again and the ground and roads in the campground were muddy. Today we had planned on a long drive to Porto, but in the morning Ton mentioned that her and Kit were hoping to visit Salamanca on the way to Porto. As we told Kit and Stephen before they came out part of the beauty of traveling in RV’s was to have flexibility in your schedule. So instead of a long drive to Porto we had a 90 minute drive to Salamanca. It was a win-win for everyone.
Street art as we entered Salamanca.
We headed into town at 12:45 after finding out there was only one bus per hour because it was a Saturday schedule. We arrived in the center of the city, and headed over to the Plaza Mayor. It was originally built to provide housing and to act as a bull fighting ring on occasion. It is a large square with four major entries on each side of the square. Now it is full of restaurants and cafes and looked like a good place to hang out.
One side of the Plaza Mayor.
Before we got to the Plaza Mayor we had diverted to the market. It is another market built of cast iron from the 1870’s. The windows are stained glass and add a nice touch to the building.
The interior of the market with the stained glass windows.
Ton window shopped, but Kit picked up some cilantro and other vegetables for dinner. Ton has been fascinated by the many types of shrimp available in Spain. Today she was happy to see a shrimp with a very large claw like one we had eaten back in Roses.
Ton was fascinated with these shrimp with a single claw.
Just as we were leaving the Plaza Mayor the wind started to pick up and the rain began. I told Ton that we should find a cafe or bar to pop into until the rain let up. She said that the forecast was rain all afternoon. But we did go into a bar and order a round of beers. Luckily after we were done with our beers the rain had stopped and we had blue skies for the rest of the day.
The conch house at the University of Salamanca.
The University of Salamanca is the third oldest university in continuous operation in the world, and is the preeminent University in the Spanish speaking world. It occupies a large part of the center of Salamanca. Cervantes the writer of Don Quixote was a student here and many quotes from the novel are on the walls of the University.
One of the entrance doors to the old Cathedral.
Salamanca has two cathedrals that are for some reason located next to each other. They are called the old and new cathedral, though they are both quite old. We spent some time near one of the entrances looking at the stone work. Ton called me over and asked me to look at the figures by the door. A couple of them stood out, but the one that looked out of place was an astronaut carved by one of the doors during a recent reconstruction. I guess it shows that these are living buildings.
An astronaut carved in stone near the entrance of the Cathedral.
Salamanca is a joy to visit as everything is very close together. My job is navigator and every time I was given a new point to go to it turned out to be only 4 or 5 minutes walk away from where we were. This would come back to haunt me later in the day.
Part of the interior of the old Cathedral.
Our last stop was the Roman bridge across the Tormes River. The bridge itself is of mixed construction with about 2/3rds of the arches of the bridge of Roman origin and the other 1/3 of medieval origin. The bridge has been rebuilt multiple times in history but is still an impressive site.
Part of the Roman bridge with the old and new Cathedrals in the background.
After we crossed the bridge we decided it was time to head back to the campground. The problem is that for some reason the transit system for Salamanca is not loaded into google maps. In most cases all I do is press where we want to go into the maps and push the transit Icon. I didn’t have that today, so I was not sure where the nearest bus stop was or what time the next bus was coming.
The walkway of the Roman bridge.
I new we were looking for Bus 20, but I didn’t know where the nearest stop for Bus 20 was. I had a hunch and after walking for about 15 minutes we came to a bus stop, but it was not the right one. Some more staring at google maps convinced me that we needed to go to another road about 15 minutes from where we were. So off we went, but this time there was not even a bus stop. We were right by a bridge I knew we had crossed into the old city so I headed across it to a bus stop at the base of the old town. I was sure it was a stop for 20, there were about 15 different bus lines listed as stopping there but none were 20. So now truly flummoxed I told everyone we should find a taxi. So we started down the road, and just as we were about 150 meters from the bus stop we had just investigated here comes bus 20 headed for it. The bus stopped at a red light and Stephen begged him to let us on. I decided to run for the bus stop and see if I could beat him there. I don’t run like I used to and the bus beat me to the stop by quite a bit so I was sure we were going to miss it. Luckily for me a nice lady saw me lumbering towards the stop, and actually put one leg in the door of the bus so the driver could not leave until I arrived. I got on and to by time for the rest of the crew to catch up I gave him a €20 bill so he had to make a lot of change.
The old Cathedral.
I felt bad because we had walked more looking for the bus stop than we had visiting the old town of Salamanca. But everyone else took it with good humor. Just as we got back to the campground the wind picked up again, the temperature dropped by several degrees, and it began raining hard. So our luck held out for the day.
It rained cats and dogs last night with occasional thunder. The finale came at 7am when lightning struck close to the campground. I took that as a sign that an early start was not in the cards and rolled over to sleep in. When Stephen and I got out to check on the state of things Stephen found two rubber mats placed in front of his front tires. The campground was worried about us getting stuck getting out and had placed the mats there to allow us to get traction. We felt bad about driving over the brand new mats and it turned out we probably didn’t need them.
Tordisillas. The bridge was built around 1300 and still carries a major highway including semi-trucks.
Our stop for the day was Tordisillas which was only about 2 hours down the road towards Porto. Ideally we would have found a stopping point a little further down the road but there didn’t seem to be any. I had fond memories of Tordisillas from our very first trip to Spain in 2018 so I was looking forward to an easy day of driving.
The church in Tordisillas.
Before leaving town we had planned to visit a Mercador Grocery nearby to stock up on food. But when we arrived we found the dreaded height barrier over the parking entrance restricting access to vehicles under 2.5 meters. Luckily there was an Aldi up the street without barriers so they got our money instead.
Tordisillas is famous for the story of Joanna the Mad. She was the queen of Castille who was wrongly declared insane and exiled to Tordisillas.
The drive over to Tordisillas was quiet. We were routed on a local road for about half the trip and it was relaxing and much more intimate. While traveling this way is much slower, the reward in seeing sites is much higher.
Our Asada plate for two. A meat lovers dream, and the potatoes were also fantastic.
The other reason I picked Tordisillas was that Ton and I had one of our most memorable meals at the campground here. We would often reminisce about the grilled meats we had at the campground in Tordisillas. We also find that going back to a place that generates fond memories can be a risk as the second try does not live up to the memory. In this case the second try was just as good as the first with the added pleasure of sharing it with friends. After our very hearty lunch we decided a siesta was in order so we were back to the RV’s for a nap. We are starting to adjust to Spanish hours, so about 6:45 we walked into town to join the evening promenade in Tortillas.
Kit had asked us to visit Segovia and we are glad she did. When she asked I didn’t even know where it was located in Spain, but it turns out it is just a little northwest of Madrid. It should have taken less than 2 hours to go from Toledo to Segovia, but we also forgot that today is labor day in Europe. So we ran into very heavy traffic as a large part of the population of Madrid was heading out of town. It was also raining heavily so I was a little worried about how our day would turn out.
It was labor day in Spain, so Segovia was extra full of visitors.
Our taxi dropped us off at the base of one of the main attractions in Segovia the Roman aqueduct. It is an amazing structure. Built around 100 AD it covers 17 kilometers from springs near the mountains to the town. The aqueduct as it passes thru the town has over 168 arches. It is one of the best preserved Roman aqueducts in the world and is a beautiful feat of engineering.
The arches are an incredible feat of engineering and construction.
Stephen and I spent a lot of time looking at the cut of the stones and how the arches were built. The precision of the work is astounding to me given the limits of the tools available then. The Romans were really incredible builders.
The Cathedral near the highest point of Segovia.
We next walked to the 12th century Cathedral near the center of town. I have been pleased to find that there seems to be more variation in the design of Spanish Cathedrals than you find in other parts of Europe. They seem more creative, and designed to fit more into the terrain and cityscape rather than imposing themselves on the land and city.
Spring flowers blooming near the Alcazar. The Alcazar is supposed to be inspiration for the castle at Disney World.
The third major building in Segovia is the Alcazar. The Alcazar was built on a cliff on one end of the town that overlooks the river below the town. There has been a fort on this site since the Romans, but the building that became the Alcazar was started by the Moslem rulers of Segovia in the 900’s.
The entrance to the Alcazar.
When Segovia was reconquered by the Christian kings of Spain it became a fortress and castle for the kings. The royalty of this part of Spain occupied the castle until the late 1700’s.
A painting in the castle depicting Queen Isabella.
The walls and ceiling retain a lot of the geometric patterns that are featured in Islamic art. In some rooms you can see where Christian art has been integrated into the Islamic art.
This room and ceiling is almost all Christian art.
The views from the castle are fantastic. You can see for miles in three directions from the platforms on the castle. You can also see many of the quarry’s that were used to produce all of the stone necessary to build the town and the castle.
The views from the castle are breath taking.
In the late 1700’s the castle was converted into the Spanish army artillery school. The museum includes a lot of artillery pieces from the era of the artillery school and I had a good time looking at them.
Looking back at the town and the city walls from the Alcazar.
Segovia and Toledo while very different from each other are both beautiful cities. Apparently, there is a lot of discussion about which city is the most beautiful. Stephen and I talked about this and we decided that they were both more or less equal, so why worry and just enjoy seeing both.
A rampart over the bluff the castle sits on. I liked the two contrasting style of gardens on either side of the rampart.
The rain had stopped just as we arrived in Segovia, and the afternoon was perfect. We walked back across the town one more time doing a little shopping and looking for a place to eat. Our timing was wrong as we forgot that dinner time in Spain is quite late. The restaurants we wanted to visit were all closed to 7 or 8 pm. We eventually decided to eat at the campground and Kit and Ton cooked up a great meal.
We told Kit and Stephen that we thought they should visit Toledo as Ton and I think it is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It is located about 80 kilometers south of Madrid so we guessed the trip would take about 90 minutes factoring in Madrid traffic.
One of the many interesting historical buildings in Toledo.
We arrived at the campground outside of Toledo about 11:30 and headed right into town. Toledo was built on a bluff overlooking the Rio Tajo River. It is a beautiful location for a city.
Looking down from the city walls on the Rio Tajo.
The city is known as the city of three religions. At one time it had large, Christian, Jewish, and Moslem populations living together. There are well preserved synagogues, and a mosque, as well as the Catholic Cathedral.
The Cathedral dominates the town.
Ton and I enjoy the town because it really maintains its medieval feel. There are lots of small pathways and staircases between homes and businesses that are only suitable for foot traffic. This is a city that really makes you feel like you have gone back in time.
One of the city gates. You can see the Islamic influence in the architecture.
We spent several hours wandering the town and enjoying the sites. The only problem with Toledo is that you are either walking up hill or down hill, there is almost no flat to the town. Stephen at one point told me the people in this town must be really fit.
El Greco loved this city and spent a large part of his life here.
Our path led us to the base of the town, so we were facing a long up hill climb to get back to our next stop in the city. Luckily I spotted a series of escalators built into the hill to take you back to the top. We all appreciated the towns investment in this people mover which saved us climbing about 300 feet up hill.
The Cathedral.
After about 4 hours of walking the town we crossed over the old footbridge to the road to the campground. We were only about 30 minutes from the campground but it was going to be all uphill. Ton, Stephen and Kit told me they would gladly pay for a taxi. After about 15 minutes we flagged down a taxi and were quickly deposited in the campground.
Another city gate.
Everyone was pretty tired after the last couple of days so we all relaxed for a couple of hours. Just as Ton and I had decided we would snack for dinner, Kit once again surprised us with another wonderful meal.
We had a team meeting in the morning. There were two questions, should we extend our stay a day to make up for yesterday, and what should we do today. The answer to the first question was No, and the vote was 4-0 to visit the Prado.
Queen Isabella.
We started out at the Royal Palace again, and while Kit and Stephen had toured the grounds we had not, so before heading down the hill to the Prado we did a quick tour of the grounds of the palace and the adjoining Cathedral.
Part of the Palace Grounds.
The Palace is immense with over 3000 rooms. It shares a large square on one side with a Cathedral. We feel bad that Kit and Stephen missed their tour as it was on their bucket list for the trip.
Part of the Cathedral complex next to the Royal Palace.
It was a bit of a long walk to the Prado, and the third time Ton and I had made it. The Prado is one of the great museums of the world, and an incredible collection of art. It is also huge. The original building was built in 1819 to display the royal collection of art.
The church overlooking the entrance to the Prado.
We spent 5 hours touring the galleries and probably did not see half of the displays. They have an incredible collection of paintings by Reubens and other Dutch and Flemish masters due to the Netherlands being ruled by the Spanish during one of the great periods of Dutch and Flemish art.
A frame from Bosch’s tetrarch called “The Garden of Earthy Delights.”
As you would expect there is a huge collection of Spanish paintings including Goya and El Greco (technically born in Greece hence the name). We walked ourselves into the ground because around every corner there was another fantastic gallery with new art to take in.
Another Bosch “The Seven Deadly Sins”.
Ton took a couple of pictures early on, but we were then informed there were no photographs allowed. Afterwards we all decided that there is far too much to see in one day. Museums like this are best absorbed in 2 or 3 hour increments before both your feet and your brain get tired. All of us were tired after about 3 hours, but no one wanted to be the first to admit it. As soon as Ton asked if it was time to leave all three of us said yes immediately.
Walking to the Metro we came across this very nice modern statue in a traffic circle.
Fortunately, the Metro was running and the trip home was uneventful. The evening was spent doing some chores and sharing a nice dinner prepared by Kit.
Madrid does have some modern office towers. This one was pretty interesting.
Well . . . an interesting day. We had a plan for the day in Madrid. Ton and I were going to explore the city on foot, while Kit and Stephen were going to take a tour of the Palace. But sometimes the best plans don’t happen.
The Plaza Mayor in Madrid.
We walked to the Metro station and rode into the center of the city, the trip was smooth. We emerged at the Opera and around the corner was the palace with a giant statue. We agreed to meet at 4pm at the giant statue.
Not the giant statue, but a giant statue.
Since we had some time until Kit and Stephens tour we decided to go together to the market. On the way to the market we found the meeting point for Kit and Stephens tour.
One of the symbols of Madrid.
We spent about 30 minutes in the market. It was a nice market but a bit expensive for our tastes. In truth it is no longer a market, but a restaurant hall. The food looked good but it was clearly intended primarily for consumption by tourists, so Ton and I decided to eat later.
Stephen and Kit stayed with us while we walked to the Plaza Mayor, and another plaza where the Madrid government building was located. Both squares were nice and there were plenty of tourists like us enjoying the beautiful unseasonably warm day.
The Plaza Mayor.
At this point Kit and Stephen headed off to find some lunch before their tour, and Ton and I continued on our walk of the city. Ton wanted to go to the writers quarter. In the writers quarter we found a block on a square with a row of old restaurants offering different kinds of regional Spanish foods. The only down side was the square was undergoing a major rebuild, but we were intrigued with the food. We walked the row of restaurants two times and settled on one that offered a nice 3 course Menu of the Day.
The writers block with a quote from Cervantes in the road.
We were seated and had picked our courses when the waitress told us they didn’t serve the Menu of the Day until 1pm at the time it was 12:25. Ton and I talked it over and we told the waitress that we would return at 1pm. On our way out we used the restroom, and as we were about to walk out of the restaurant the power went out with a pop that startled everyone.
Once everyone got over the shock there was some giggling and we told the staff we would be back at 1pm. When we stepped onto the street we could see the power was out everywhere on the block and I told Ton someone must have cut a power line in the construction area.
We walked around the neighborhood for a while and watched as the wait staff and cooks from restaurants, clerks from stores, and the construction workers all stood around and tried to figure out was going on. I noticed that our access to wifi had stopped so one of our key tools for getting around was not working. By 1pm the power was still out in the writers quarter so we decided to expand our search for food.
The park near the Prado Museum.
I noticed that we were only a quarter mile or so from the Prado Museum which is one of the biggest attractions in Spain so I suggested we go there to look for food. I also figured that it would be far enough away from the construction to be out of the black out zone.
As we walked I noticed that all of the traffic lights were out. When we got to the Prado we saw that they were closing the museum so the black out was more widespread than we thought. At this point we figured that it was more than a local problem. We saw a cafe serving drinks and sandwiches, but when we sat down the waiter told us the food they had left was chips and we would have to pay with cash. So we had a very light lunch. The whole time we were not able to access our phones and I was a little frustrated, but suddenly I received a text from Stephen saying their tour was cancelled. But I was unable to reply.
We decided after our “lunch” to head towards the palace figuring that Kit and Stephen would be there. As we walked we noticed that more and more police were appearing on the streets. Some in plain clothes with just their high visibility jackets. Several of the main intersections were having traffic directed by a mix of different police forces in Spain. We also saw people standing on the streets holding old fashioned portable radios to get news. It was a good day for analog.
The beginning of the walk home.
As we walked towards meet up point we received two more texts from Kit and Stephen but were not able to respond. But just as we saw the big statue we saw Kit and Stephen sitting at a cafe next to it so we were back together. This cafe had some cold Tapas available so we had a quick meal while we figured next steps.
The problem was we could not access the internet to see the news. We heard conversations that the power was out in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France, but no one was sure why.
While we were eating I began to play with the phone, I could still get the map of Madrid on it, and was even able to scroll in and out to get closer views. After a while I was able to locate the campground, and by scrolling in and out discovered that one of the main avenues leaving downtown went straight to the campground. Since the Metro was closed walking might be our option.
I told everyone that I thought we could walk back to the campground as a last resort. I also thought once we got down the avenue we might be able to figure out what bus line to get on to get to the campground. That became the plan.
We passed the bull ring on Calle Alicante.
So we set off looking for Calle Alicante which fortunately for me started at a big monument. It turns out we were about 8 miles from the campground on foot. As we walked we saw the metro stops we had passed in the morning taped off to prevent entry.
Mostly I was impressed with the attitude of the people. On the entire walk I didn’t see anyone behaving badly. The police were calm and professional, those that weren’t busy directing traffic were helping people with directions or information. Twice on the trip when I was checking my bearings people asked me if I needed any help.
Closed Metro Station.
Our idea of taking a bus was quickly forgotten when we saw the first bus stops on the road. There were hundreds of people waiting for busses, and the busses that went by were packed like sardine cans. We kept walking down the Calle Alicante for 2 hours until I noticed that the last couple of busses were only crowded, not packed, and the crowds at the bus stop were much smaller.
We headed over to the next bus stop and a nice young lady told us we wanted bus 77 and even told me which stop to get off at. She was very helpful. We squeezed on to the bus and covered the next mile and a half in 10 minutes. The young lady even went out of her way to make sure we got off at the right station.
We arrived at the campground around 7pm after a big adventure. When I checked my fitbit I saw that we had covered over 10.4 miles today, some of it as tourists and most of it as foot mobile commuters. Everyone was tired but we enjoyed sitting around until dark, and just before sunset the street lights around the campground came on.
We found a well reviewed campground in Madrid, so about 10am we were off for the big city. We love driving the freeways in Europe on Sundays because there are almost no commercial trucks on the road. It is very relaxing being the slowest vehicle, just set the cruise control and head on down the road.
We arrived at the campground a little after 1pm and the place was hoping. They had a little market going and a live band performing in the afternoon. We were setup and ready to go just as the band opened up their set. Ton saw some nice commercial washers and dryers so our afternoon was settled. Just as we finished our laundry the band finished up.
Later Stephen and I decided to do a reconnaissance to the metro station we will use tomorrow. I went into the metro to buy a multi trip ticket, and Stephen went into a store to buy some water for their RV. I got to the machine only to find it surrounded by about 25 middle-aged German tourists trying to figure out how to get a ticket. I watched for a few minutes and then decided it was not worth the wait while the Germans figured out the machine.
As Stephen and I were walking back towards the campground we saw another entrance to the metro so I told him I was going to run in and see if I could get the card. This time the machine was unoccupied, and within a minute I had my fare card and loaded ten trips on the metro on to it. When I came out of the metro I saw Stephen sitting at a cafe with two beers and a plate of potato chips. We decided this was our reward for the reconnaissance.
Later Kit again prepared an excellent dinner. While we were chatting a nice Laotian lady came by and had a chat with Ton and Kit. She lives in Germany now and is fluent in 5 languages.
We had just visited Zaragoza two weeks ago but we had been focused on the area around the Cathedral due to the Palm Sunday celebration that was going on. Today we wanted to explore a different part of Zaragoza’s history.
The exterior of the Aljaferia Palace.
The Aljaferia Palace was started around 1045 AD by the Moorish rulers of Zaragoza and completed around 1080. It is one of the best examples remaining of Spanish-Moslem architecture. After the reconquest of Zaragoza in 1118 the palace was taken over by the Christian kings of Aragon.
Beautiful ceiling panels preserved in the palace.
While the palace has been substantially altered over the last 900 years there was no concerted effort to remove the Islamic style carvings and art in the palace. What was lost was nearly always due to repurposing and redesign of areas of the palace.
Another beautiful ceiling in the palace.
As a result a lot of the details of the building remain from the original Islamic artists and workers who built the building. Also as the building has evolved some of the original construction is hidden behind later construction and being rediscovered today.
Examples of Arabic calligraphy discovered in the Aljaferia.
Many of the doorways remain from the original construction and have the traditional Arabic arches. They are quite elaborate with remarkably skilled stone carving built into them.
One of the Arched doorways with a Goya portrait in the background.
We were lucky because the Goya museum is being renovated so two floors of the palace had collections from the Goya museum on temporary display. Goya is one of the most famous Spanish artists and a native of Zaragoza.
A drawing by Goya.
The displays included everything from pen and ink drawings, political cartoons, and of course loads of religious paintings and portraits of rich people and royalty. There were also some paintings from other famous Zaragoza artists.
A religious painting from the Goya museum. We think it is a Goya but are not 100% certain.
After finishing with the Aljaferia palace we headed to the old town. Our first priority was lunch, but on the way to the old town we came across the bull ring. They are always interesting buildings though we cannot imagine attending a bull fight.
The exterior of the bull ring. Bull rings, more than any other modern sports building always remind me of Roman coliseums.
We found an street lined with Tapas shops and found our way into one. It took us a while to figure out the system (to be honest I was never 100% certain what was going on), but in the end we had an interesting meal of 7 different tapas, and a very interesting regional potato dish, plus 4 drinks for about $7 each.
The entrance to our Tapas restaurant.
After lunch we returned to the immense main square which is one of the largest in Europe. They were setting up for the Goya festival which begins tonight. So the square was kind of blocked off into sections which took away the effect its large size gives it.
One of the displays of the Goya festival which begins tonight.
We popped into the Cathedral which is much larger than it looks from the square. Ton really likes this Cathedral and wanted to revisit some of the parts of it from our last visit.
Mary.
Our last stop in town was the Ebro river which was wider than I expected and flowing fast with spring runoff from the mountains. By this time we had been moving around Zaragoza for seven hours, so the vote was 4-0 to make our way to the bus stop and head back to camp.
A bridge over the Ebro River.
After everyone got a little rest in, we all re-gathered for a glass of wine, and another delicious meal by Kit. The weather has been good this trip, but we had quite a change in temperature in 24 hours. Yesterday when we were sitting around at 8pm it was 80 degrees and we were watching thunderclouds build. Today it 62 degrees and the wind was howling. Around sunset everyone was cold and we turned in for the evening.
Indie Jones and François the campers with two cold old men.
We are back in Zaragoza. We are making our way to Madrid and Zaragoza is on the way and made a good impression on Ton and me, so we have booked two nights here so we can show Stephen and Kit what we saw. The drive over here was going easily until I noticed an electronic sign board saying the Autopista was closed ahead and all traffic would have to exit on the N-2 which is a two lane road. The accident was between two exits so we had to travel about 25 kilometers on the two lane road. It ended up taking about 45 minutes for the detour which all in all isn’t too bad.
The poppies seem to really enjoy the soil next to the highway.
We arrived at the Costco in Zaragoza for a restock and more importantly refuel of very cheap fuel. Both Stephen and I were very happy after we were done. We then went inside Costco where Stephen and I tried a hotdog for €1.50 and a large box of fries for €1.65. Stephen pronounced the hotdog as excellent but he was not impressed with the fries, nor was I. About an hour later we walked out of Costco with an awful lot fo food to put away.
The rest of the day was spent chatting under Stephens awning until an evening thunderstorm drove us into the motorhomes.
We made a short jump down the coast to Tarragona. We wanted to test convoy driving and so I wanted to keep it short today, but we had the complication of driving across the second biggest city in Spain with a population of about 3 million. Much to our relief the drive went pretty well and we arrived at our campground in Tarragona around noon.
Tarragona has beautiful beaches but is not famous as a tourism draw.
After we had lunches at the campground it was time to head into Tarragona. Our quick research showed that it is known as one of the largest sea ports in Europe with a nice cathedral and some Roman ruins. We were not sure what to expect when we arrived as it is not known as a tourist destination.
The Roman Amphitheater is well preserved and has a wonderful location right on the waterfront.
We stepped off the bus right in front of the Roman Amphitheater. While not perfectly preserved like some we have visited it was well presented and occupied the most spectacular site of any we have seen. You can look down on it from many directions and get a good view of how things worked. You can walk thru it, but we decided against paying the admission fee. It was built in the 2d century but abandoned during Moorish rule. After the Moors were driven from the area it was used occasionally for different uses including as a prison. Work to preserve it only began in the 1950’s.
It is quite large as you can see by looking at the school class in the right center of the picture.
After spending time around the amphitheater we decided to head up the hill to the Cathedral. We really enjoyed the walk thru the streets. After our experience yesterday with the huge crowds in Barcelona the relatively quiet streets of Tarragona were a treat.
The streets of Tarragona were just as beautiful as Barcelona without the crowds.
It was only about 450 meters to the Cathedral, but it took us about 45 minutes to cover the distance as every few feet there were interesting buildings to photograph, or an interesting shop to poke around in. One square we saw had been built on top of the old Roman Circus and you could still see how the contours of the circus had shaped the layout of the square. We were charmed by the town.
Cool street art depicting some moment from Catalan or Tarragonan history.
The other thing that was fun about Tarragona is you would suddenly come upon an old Roman or Medieval wall that had been cleverly integrated into a more modern building. On one stretch of a Medieval wall you could see repurposed Roman stones that still had clear marks chiseled on them from the Roman times. Steve explained to me that the marks indicated which stone mason carved the rocks, almost like brands on live stock. So when it was time to be paid it was clear whose stones had been produced by who. It was a simple but effective way of accounting.
An old arch looking out on the back of the Cathedral.
We finally reached the Cathedral and it was also a pleasant surprise. While Cathedrals are always impressive in size and form after a while they begin to look repetitive. The Cathedral in Tarragona had a unique entrance which we have not seen anywhere else. The entrance way had the typical shell structure around the doors but the walls on either side of the door had sculptures carved into them. As you enter the Cathedral you pass thru this line of statues.
The statues lining the entry to the church with a women (we assume it is Mary)on a column in the center of the door.
We really enjoyed the entrance way and spent some time studying the statues and examining the copper door. It was another unexpected surprise in Tarragona.
Close up of the figures on the front of the Cathedral.
We spent another 45 minutes just enjoying a stroll thru the streets of the town. There were interesting things to see around every corner and we all enjoyed just walking at a comfortable pace and taking in the sites as they were presented to us. To me this is a high compliment to the city of Tarragona. After we were done we walked to the bus stop and our bus was waiting for us there. 25 minutes later the bus deposited us in front of the campground and we returned to our motorhomes for a nice dinner ending with a walk on the beach for sunset.
Today was Sant Jordi day which is the Valentines day for the Catalans. We decided to head back into Barcelona for one more day before setting off for other parts of Spain so once again we were up bright and early to catch the bus to the city.
On Sant Jordi day the men give the women roses, and the women give the men books.
We started the day by heading to the old Cathedral in the Gothic district. What we didn’t realize was that Sant Jordi day was a very big deal in Catalonia. Many of the major streets down town were closed and there were more people about than were down town on Saturday.
People taking a rest from their excursion into the city for Sant Jordi day
The square in front of the Cathedral was busy, and unlike Saturday the majority of the crowd was speaking Catalan rather than a foreign language. Ton and I walked around the Cathedral while Steve and Kit went in for a tour of the interior of the cathedral.
The crowd around the Cathedral was much heavier than on Saturday. Valentines day in Catalonia is a really big holiday.
Ton and I spent our time poking into the buildings that used to be residences for the clergy and rich people. We also spent some time in the building that is now the city archives for Barcelona. The courtyards of these buildings while of a similar design were each different enough to be interesting.
The governors building on the square. Note the flags at half mast to commemorate Pope Francis.
After spending some time around the cathedral and some meandering thru the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter it was time for lunch. Our first choice was closed on Wednesday but Ton had spotted a place nearby and it turned out to be a great find. We got the last four seats available and had a wonderful meal with 4 Tapas, 3 beers, and 2 big plates of Paella. The food was wonderful and it came to around €23 per person.
After lunch we braved the crowds on Las Ramblas to get to the market.
The Market was our next stop. Las Ramblas was teeming with people, and the roads that run parallel to it were closed to handle the overflow. It was a good thing.
The main aisle in the Mercat de la Boqueria.
We spent about 30 minutes in the market and both Kit and Ton made some purchases despite the crowds. It was getting a little overwhelming for me so I was happy when we were done shopping.
No egg shortage in Spain.
Our final stop for the day was at one of Gaudis’ buildings. In honor of St. Jordi they had added Roses to the facade. It was very beautiful, but drew the biggest crowd we had run into for the day. The sidewalk in front Casa Batllo was the densest group of pedestrians I have seen since Tokyo. It was impossible to move without bumping into someone. Despite that Ton and Kit really enjoyed taking pictures while I hung out at the edge of the crowd.
The roses really added to the beauty of the Casa Batllo.
At this point we were all pretty tired from the walking and the crowds so we found a coffee shop to hang out in until it was time to head to the bus for our trip back to the camp. We learned that Sant Jordi day is a really big deal in Catalonia, and a day when the local people can take over their own city.
Today we stayed around the campground while Kit and Steve got there motorhome set up. They are lucky to have gotten a brand new motorhome as their rental so it is sparkling clean. They spent some time getting their bags unpacked and set up. We then joined them on their first shopping trip to a large Spanish grocery. 2 1/2 hours later we emerged they had two carts full of food and supplies for their trip. We had a couple bottles of wine and a six pack of beer. By the time we were finished and they had packed away their food and supplies it was time for dinner. Kit treated us to a nice Thai meal while Steve and I taste tested a couple of Spanish beers. Tomorrow we are off to Barcelona again.
After a leisurely morning sleeping late and having a nice breakfast we headed into Mataro. It was Easter Monday so all of the shops in town were closed. The cafes were open and doing a booming business as families were gathering on the day off. After walking thru the town we headed down to the beach which was thriving.
Ton called this the Jenga tower.
Mataro has a large breakwater protecting its harbor with a very nice walkway on top with views to Barcelona. The harbor was full of recreational boats including a couple of large yachts, and some very nice sailboats. The walkway was quite full with people enjoying the almost perfect weather.
Life jackets lined up in preparation for the beginning of tourist season.
We enjoyed our excursion into Mataro but needed to head back to the campground as our friends Kit and Stephen were due to arrive today. We went back to the campground which was buzzing with activity with many departures, but just as many arrivals. By the end of the day the 400 spaces in the campground were full.
A quiet section of beach in Mataro.
Kit and Stephen arrived and we spent the evening catching up and planning the next couple of days. We then had a nice dinner at the restaurant in the campground before settling in for the evening.
We spontaneously decided to take a day off today. Neither one of us really talked about it, it just happened. We slept in, and then lazed around the van for the morning. Usually we will have a conversation over breakfast about what to do, but it never came up. So instead we just enjoyed a beautiful day in the campground.
We last visited Barcelona in 2018 and really enjoyed the city. One of the reasons we like this campground is that it offers a shuttle into the center of the city. We signed up for the first bus of the day, and I was a little surprised when we got to the bus stop to find over 100 people waiting. It seems that everyone had the same thought to go into the city today. The campground had put on three busses for the 9:15 departure so everyone ended up with a comfortable seat.
Barcelona is famous for this walkway called Las Rambles. When we arrived it was pretty quiet, later in the day when we returned it was packed.
When we got to the city it was raining a bit, and it would continue to rain off and on until early in the afternoon. We arrived pretty early and while things were bustling it was a fun bustling. Barcelona is one of the top tourism destinations in Europe and has been in the news lately due to local protests against over tourism. As the day went on the crowds got to be quite heavy in nearly every part of the city we visited and uncomfortably dense in the big tourist areas. I can sympathize with the locals, but also understand the attraction of this beautiful city to visitors.
The La Boqueria Market near Las Rambles. One of Ton’s favorite markets in Europe.
Our first stop was the La Boqueria Market which is just off of Las Rambles. We have visited a lot of markets in Europe and this one is near the top of Ton’s favorites so she was excited to visit it again.
Spanish Tacos on sale in one of the food cases.
Ton was looking for a certain brand of Paprika so in addition to just enjoying the ambiance of the market we were checking out all of the stalls that sold spices. Ton really enjoys going from stall to stall looking at all of the displays. She could spend hours in these markets, but is kind to me.
Pre-mixed meals to be taken home and cooked.
We had thoughts of visiting one of the coffee shops in the market but it was packed so we passed. But after visiting several spice shops we found the brand Ton was looking for and bought three cans of paprika to take back to François. Once again La Boqueria did not disappoint us.
A meat stand complete with legs of ham hanging in the back.
Our next stop for the day was the Gothic Quarter. This is one of the oldest parts of Barcelona and is full of cool streets lined with small shops and restaurants.
One of the wider streets in the Gothic Quarter.
The Gothic Quarter also contains the Gothic Cathedral which is now the second most famous Cathedral in Barcelona. We came upon it from the back and wandered around the streets surrounding the Cathedral for a while before we arrived at the front.
Part of the back of the Cathedral.
The front was impressive, but it is no longer the Cathedral that attracts the most tourists. It has been eclipsed by Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in another part of town. It is still a nice Cathedral and was getting a lot of visitors when we went by.
The Gothic Cathedral of Barcelona.
Having done a fair bit of walking already we jumped into a churro shop we came across. We shared a small portion which consisted of one very thick cup of hot chocolate and four 10 inch long churro’s. Another great fried dough.
Unfortunately it was closed or we would have had one of these instead of Churros.
Since Gaudi has just been proposed for saint hood in the Catholic Church we decided to head over to one of the famous buildings he designed. It was a pretty good walk from where we were, but Barcelona is one of the most walkable cities we have toured. Even with the big crowds it is pretty easy to get around and is full of charming things to see.
One of Gaudi’s most famous designs, he hated straight lines.
After visiting Gaudi it was time for lunch. Ton had picked out a Tapas place she wanted to try in the Gothic District. Today was one of more inefficient walking days as we double backed on ourselves several times to check out a place that caught our interest.
We came across this sculpture that we really liked in our back and forth in Barcelona. We ended up seeing it two more times as we criss crossed the city.
The Bodega Biarritz is a small place and we were worried about getting a table, but we arrived 15 minutes after they opened and they gave us a table four on the condition that we be prepared to move to a smaller table if they asked. Later in the meal they did ask so we got to enjoy two different views of this restaurant.
Our appetizer tray with the eight tapas we received as our main course.
The menu is interesting here. You get an appetizer plate of cheese and ham which is pretty standard, but the quality is high. But the chef picks the 8 tapas you receive. Each customer gets a slightly different set of Tapas. We received prawns, a dish of pork and mushrooms, a pigeon in rice, a beef and cheese dish, some chicken in a sauce, and a nice fish dish, a ham with potato and onion, and finally a vegetarian dish. They were all excellent and Ton loved the crispy prawns. We had a look at other trays that went by and they were indeed different than ours. It was one of the best Tapas places we have eaten in.
The Arch of Triumph. We are not sure what Triumph it is celebrating. Probably has something to do with beating the French.
We still had a couple of hours to kill so we crossed back across town to the Arch of Triumph. When we got there we found a nice bench to sit at and recharge our batteries, (both our personal ones, and the ones on our I-phones) while doing some people watching. We then crossed back one more time (with an 800 meter detour do to my poor google map skills) to pick up our bus back to the campsite for the night.
Our friends Stephen and Kit will be joining us on Monday for about a month. They are flying into Barcelona and renting a RV. We selected a campground outside of Barcelona because it is large and we had good memories of being here from 2018.
As I said yesterday we booked our spot here a couple of weeks ago as it is Easter weekend. In Spain it is a four day holiday so we wanted to make sure we had a spot to meet them on Monday. The campground we are staying at has about 400 places and they are all full tonight. It is a bustling place right now.
When we arrived we settled in to a spot that is a tight fit for François. Ton asked where the laundry facilities were, and we she saw the large commercial Maytag washers and dryers the afternoon was settled. We now have a fresh load of clean clothes.
We spent the day watching the other campers settle into our spots. This is always good entertainment. On our little block of sites there are three Spanish families, one Italian with three cute girls, one Bulgarian couple, and us. We’ve been watching a Spanish girl who is about the same age as the Italian girls try to get up the nerve to join them in play. Hopefully she will.
The campground is is located about 100 yards from the Mediterranean, but unfortunately there is a four lane highway and two railway tracks between us and the water. We walked over and found an underpass to the ocean but when we got under the road and the tracks there was only a narrow dirt trail along the water. So we headed back to François to settle in for the evening.
The oceanfront trail near the campground. Not very appealing.
We have been meaning to visit Girona for a while. It had a reputation as a real foody town with great restaurants which was our primary motivation. So this morning we shifted the 80 kilometers from Roses. On the way out of town we passed a car wash so we swung in and knocked some of the worst of the road dirt off François.
Girona is full of beautiful narrow streets like this. It is a town to be explored on foot which we love.
We found our aire near the center of town. It is a concrete parking lot surrounded by apartments, so not romantic, but very practical as it is only 1 kilometer from the center of the city.
Some really nice street art near our aire tonight.
The old town is built on a hill in the center of the city and has been a fortress town since the Romans. It was heavily fought over during the War of Spanish Succession in the early 1700’s when the French and Spanish fought over who was going to control Catalonia. The border was eventually settled with most of Catalonia being in Spain, and a small part around Perpignon in France. The Catalans have a slightly different feel for the story, but that is for another time.
A monument to the General who defended Girona from the French during the Napoleanic wars.
Girona is located in a very strategic spot as it controls one of the best exits from Spain into France. As a result it has suffered 25 sieges and been captured 7 times. During the period between about 715 and 980 it was basically on the front line in the war between the Christian kingdoms of France, and the Islamic rulers of Moorish Spain. During that time it changed hands multiple times.
This is the area around the Arab Baths, reflecting the Moorish influence on Girona. The church is Catholic from around 980.
Girona also had a thriving Jewish community during the middle ages that occupied an area in the center of the city. This community was forced to convert to Christianity or were expelled by the Spanish kings in 1492 (a year familiar to American educated people for a different reason).
The city is full of these pedestrian stair cases. There are many of them, some quite small that would make for a fun day of exploration if you have the legs for it.
The Cathedral in the city is located on the highest point of land in the city. The Cathedral was built on a site that the Moors had converted to a Mosque. It is Spanish Gothic. It has become famous recently as it was used in the Game of Thrones. The massive steps in front of the church are quite impressive, and fans of the show will remember them as the steps that Arya Stark fell down while being chased in Season 6.
The impressive steps leading to the hilltop Cathedral in Girona.
A lot of the walls of the city are still intact and you can walk large sections of them. We scrambled up onto them a couple of times and the views were spectacular.
This church also has some impressive steps, but it is unusual in Spain for having a spire. This is not common in Spanish Churches.
The river is crossed by multiple pedestrian bridges. The most famous is a bridge built by Gustave Eiffel who is of course famous for the Eiffel tower. Most of the bridges are stone or concrete, but Eiffel’s bridge is of course made of Iron.
The Eiffel bridge in Girona.
The architecture along the river was more modern, and reminded me of the Netherlands where buildings are built right to, or even overhanging the river. The river was pretty low right now, but must at times be much higher based on the design of the homes.
The riverfront reminded me of the Netherlands.
We also went down to the town market right before it closed. Once again we did some recreational shopping. Ton loves these old markets, and finds the regional foods to be fascinating. Even though it was close to closing time most of the vendors were still open and doing good business.
These are the red shrimp we enjoyed so much yesterday.Ton has enjoyed tomatoes since she was a child; so she was intrigued by this presentation.
After the walking and climbing (my Fitbit said we climbed the equivalent of 161 flight of stairs today) we had a long discussion about what to eat. Despite Girona’s reputation as a foody town (it is supposed to have the most Michelin stars per capita in the world) we opted for a very light lunch and two glasses of Vermouth. I think we were both still enjoying our meal from yesterday in Roses.
Figures from the Cathedral.
We did have enough room to try the local dessert called Xuixo de Crema. They are another great example of why fried dough makes the best desserts and nearly every culture has their version of it.
Our Xuixo’s (roughly pronounced Choo-chu).
Girona reminds me of why I like traveling without reservations or commitments. If not for our reservations tomorrow in Barcelona I think we would stay for another day here. Girona warrants another day of exploration, maybe more. But we were nervous about Easter weekend so we booked ourselves in the campground in Barcelona. So tomorrow we are off for Barcelona.
It was raining heavily when we woke up in the morning so we settled in and enjoyed our coffee. After we got going in the morning we checked the weather and the rain was supposed to stop around noon. We had been planning to go to Girona today, but decided to wait for tomorrow.
After the rain stopped at noon it turned into a beautiful day.
Around noon we decided to head out to the promenade and see what was happening today in Roses. On the walk down to the town it was still cold and gray, Ton took some pictures but was not happy with the result. She then told me that this region was famous for two different Prawns called Palamos and Carabinero, and handed me a list of three places we could find them.
Our restaurant where we had a great plate of shellfish and shrimp.
After checking out all three we decided on a fourth restaurant we remembered from our last stay here. We had to wait to get a table, which is always a good sign. After about 10 minutes we were seated, but had spent the time trying to decide what to order. We were still undecided when we got to the table so we used the walk to the table to look at all of the dishes. We finally decided on a plate of shellfish and shrimp.
Our mixed plate for two.
Ton was thrilled with the selection of different shell fish and shrimp including three different shrimp and a lobster, plus a nice mixture of clams, mussels, and razor clams. The meal was fantastic, Ton was very happy.
The remnants of our meal.
When we left the restaurant the sun had come out so Ton was very happy again. This time she was stopping every few yards to take photos as the sea, sky, and surrounding sites were perfect for photos.
The sky was beautiful, and the sea was crystal clear.
The walk back was a very enjoyable for Ton, and I enjoyed people watching and watching Ton have fun.
Ice plant on the beach.
I have talked about Roses in the past. It has an interesting role historically as a port during the Spanish empire and celebrates that. But mostly it is a great beach resort town with a nice vibe that really appeals to us.
Posing with a couple of conquistadors.
It was a late start to the day, but in the end it turned into a great day at a place we really like.
