The Alcazar
It had orange trees. Most things in Spain have orange trees actually. They were in the central courtyard that was surrounded by a nice little walkway pictured below. The archways had very intricate carvings that were good for getting up close to and staring at in amazement. We did not, however, do the same for the plaques that I'm sure were very informative, because they were in Spanish.
Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar
This cathedral was built around a pillar. It is said that some guy saw the Virgin Mary ascending up to heaven near it or something. So they built a church around the pillar. Obviously. Then they built another church on top of that one. Then they built a bigger church over that one until it became a cathedral. (I'm paraphrasing but close enough.) Many make the pilgrimage here to kiss the pillar and mothers even bring their babies, though I don't know how they make them kiss the pillar.
As you can tell from the title, this building was huge. See the little guy in the left of the picture below? That's Goya checking out how huge it is.
We got lunch at a local restaurant. Luckily the waiter spoke a bit of English and could tell us a few words from the menu. I got gazpacho soup to start, which was very good, though I reflexively blowed on it when it came. It was strange to have cold soup. Yannick and I both got the pork dish for main. It looked like an exploded sausage, with sliced and fried potatoes. It tasted like a sausage too: pork, onion and herbs. There was a sauce by it that tasted like a spicy mayonnaise. I forget what the dish is called; I want to get it again.
When we tried to leave Zaragoza, our GPS had a bit of a tantrum and we had to find our own way out of the city, with all its one way streets and streets that look like footpaths and things that appear to be roundabouts but aren't. If I'm posting this blog, you know that we managed to escape.
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