We’ve had a bit of a break since the last post. We both caught a cold which meant lying around in bed for a few days not doing anything, and then me forgetting to check for wifi before booking accommodation and ending up in a string of places with no wifi. (During this period Pedr’s mobile data usage went through the roof, and for some reason Vodafone shops seem to be impossible to find or closed when you need them).
Since the last post we went all the way from Granada to Burgos (10.5hr on the bus), and then on to Zaragoza and Tarragona.
Burgos is a really nice little town. It’s got this beautiful gothic cathedral which has been recently restored so it looks like it’s brand new. And a nice river with parks for strolling and watching ducks surfing the rapids.
Since it’s not too far from the French border we noticed that there was a lot of food with foie and very good pastries and desserts. Pedr got addicted to blood sausage meatballs with foie while we were there. Burgos is also a major stop on the ‘Camino de Santiago’ pilgrimage. The same one that we unwittingly followed in Caceres. This time we didn’t follow all the shells and arrows. But we did see quite a few pilgrims passing through town, and then later along the highway as we caught the bus to Zaragoza.
Zaragoza has a few Roman ruins and it was interesting to see the theatre as it was built with concrete that looks almost the same as modern concrete. You can even see the formwork marks on the walls as they used concrete very similarly to how we do today.
Zaragoza’s local government has a pretty awesome location, inside an old castle complete with watchtowers and moat. Way cooler than Parliament House.
There was also an interesting little church we found that was housing the city’s collection of stained glass & crystal parade floats (faroles). These things are pretty big and elaborate and they take them out once a year to parade them through the town. I’d be too scared of breaking them!
Tarragona has some good ruins, especially the amphitheatre which has been partially restored and gets used for shows. Some of the early Christians were burned alive in the amphitheatre so as a memorial they built a church right in the middle of the amphitheatre a few hundred years later. You can still see the crucifix shaped ruins inside.
Part of the circus has been restored and you can walk through a long section of tunnel under the circus which has survived for 2000 years. Even though the locals were using it as a rubbish dump. All the current buildings which were built on top of the circus are narrow and all the same size because they used the grandstand from the circus in their foundations. So the local government is currently buying up properties to excavate the rest of the circus.
There’s also an ancient set of ruins that they discovered when they were building the new shopping centre. They decided to keep them in position and build a small exhibit around them to protect them. So now you can go visit ancient ruins in a shopping centre carpark. It was a very odd experience walking around the ancient ruins listening to upbeat Spanish pop music while cars came and went.
We also found one of the smallest churches in Spain. They didn’t want to demolish it when they put up the new building, so they built a courtyard around it.
We’re now currently in our last stop in Spain, Barcelona, so the next post should have lots of crazy Gaudi buildings as I have got a little over excited with the camera here. Until then!
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