Today is the bullet train, but not until 10:30am, so as usual we are up early and decide to walk up to Asturias to get cappuccino to start our day.  Oh, now we feel like regulars!  We walk in, the owner sees us and just makes our cappuccino without even asking!  Too sweet. Hate we’re leaving that place, but I’m sure we’ll find another. 

After that it is all about wait time, finalizing the packing, walking over to the station with the bags (it’s only a 10 minute flat walk – easy), grab a cappuccino in a café, then strategically placing ourselves in the waiting area watching the hordes of people line up for the 10:00am train. Oh, yeah strategic placement is the key.  Even though we have reserved seats, we still have 2 bags we have to stow and we need to be on that train first. 

Once we see which platform, we hustle over to the line, pay our 30 Euro fee for the big bag (because the online system would not work for us to pay 15 Euros in advance – we tried and tried and tried for days – but no go), then hustled down the platform to our car and stowed our bags.  Phew.  Actually, that was easy.  Until we realized we should have kept the smaller bag with us and put it overhead.  OY.  We went up and grabbed it and then the 2 of us hoisted it up – we needed both of us – that puppy is heavy!  But at least now we’re old hands at it and can easily handle tomorrow’s train ride to Barcelona.

And off we go!  This train is seriously awesome.  We are flying down the tracks – Ed clocked us at 185mph at one point in time.  Fabulous.  I blog and in between look out the window at the amazing scenery.  Acres and acres of fields, all cut for the fall, as far as the eye can see.  Then up into the mountains in the middle of the country and through forests and past little villages.  Sadly, the windows were really dirty so picture taking was not in the gameplan.  Oh well.  You’ll just have to take my word for it. 

An hour and 15 minutes later we are in Zaragoza and walking to the other side of the train platform to get to our hotel – literally in the train station!  Leaving tomorrow will be super easy. 

Of course it is too early to check in, so the sweet reception gal checked our bags, gave us a whole bunch of info and a map and we were off, walking into town along the main road from the train station. About 30 minutes later we arrive in the old town, which is a great little place full of old narrow cobblestone streets and great architecture. There are tons of restaurants and a bunch of Roman Ruins. Zaragoza was formerly known as Caesaragusta, the only Roman city known to have Caesar’s full name attached.  Thought to be founded in 14 BC, there are 4 museums featuring the Roman ruins in town.  Just up our alley!  Unfortunately, though, all these ruin museums are only open until 2 so we just barely made it to the Forum ruins. The remaining 3 museums – the theatre, the public baths and the river port – don’t open again until 5pm, which we figured was too late.

Oh well, the Forum museum is pretty fascinating on it’s own.  All underground – you wonder what they were going to build when they found these during the excavation – and huge.  There are remnants of the main temple, the porticos, the agora and a really cool basement area that preserves the sewer system and shows how the water was drained off the streets of the Forum and then funneled down into the River Ebro.  They’ve also produced a really nice video in the voice of the river!  Great creative thinking – the river tells the story of how the Romans came and diverted it (the river calls them the little destructors) to create the city and the port and the forum.  Totally fun and educational.

After the Roman period, we head to the Medieval period and visit the Cathedral which we really didn’t know much about but was gorgeous and opulent with this wild wooden like cupola in the center of the apse. Beautiful, and something we’ve never seen before. The frescoes in the domes (which are all tiled on the outside of the cathedral roof) are detailed, dark and intense.  Oh, and the place is huge – and a square type set up – not the usual long Eastern cross type layout.  Strangely unique, that’s for sure.

After the Cathedral visit, we went around the corner to “climb” the tower – which was really sort of climbing!  A panoramic elevator took us most of the way up, then we had to climb about 5 sets of stairs, with is narrow circular staircase to get you to the top and the viewpoint. At the top it was really, really small and there were 8 people already up there crowding around this little space. Sigh. And they wouldn’t move around the space so the rest of us could see.  They just kept standing there looking at us, like they expected us to disappear or something?  I don’t know.  One of the girls was trying to narrate where they were and what they were seeing, but still.  There was also this little kid who first wouldn’t move off the stairs to let us up, and then when he finally did, he was right behind me and kept pushing me.  I kept sweetly telling him I’d move when I could. But he kept pushing and, well, it took all I could not to smack the brat! Sheesh. 

It was so uncomfortable, we ended up taking fast pictures and getting the heck out of there as soon as the idiots moved enough to let us access the stairs. At least we have some great pictures to remember it by – even if we couldn’t exactly savor the actual moment! 

Ok – deep breath.  Now time for lunch.  Instead of wandering out by the main road, we just plopped down at a place right on the plaza across from the cathedral; Restaurante Espana Siglo XXI.  All local products, and we splurged on a very expensive plate of local pink tomatoes that were excellent, if not really worth the price.  But the rest of the meal was quite reasonable and great – Croquettas jamon and Bocadillo de tortilla – scrambled eggs with chistorro on a crusty roll.  Oh, so very good.  And the biggest pour of wine in a huge wine glass!  Yep.  I’m set for the afternoon.

We walked off our lunch by heading to the Goya Museum and snapping lots more pictures of the cathedral on the way. 

We were still too early for the afternoon opening, so we stopped for a cappuccino at a cute little place around the corner and entertained ourselves by watching this delivery robot get lost on the little cobblestone streets.  It went up and down this one street 3 or 4 times, then parked outside an apartment looking place, opened it’s hatch, waited a bit, then closed the hatch and went back of the little street.  It was too funny. The last we saw it was rolling along the narrow alley across from the Goya museum!

The museum itself was interesting, if you are a Goya fan. I’ve decided I am not, portraits just sort of bore me, but since he is from Zaragoza – or at least the Aragon region – it seemed like something we should do.  Ok.  Done.  Now we hike back to the hotel – past the old Roman walls and the gorgeous Iglesia de San Cayetano y Capilla de Santa Isabel – with a pit stop at Lidl for our dinner! 

We stopped along the way for refreshments at, of all things, the Bar Amsterdam Café!  It was run by a family, where Dad was there at a table with the kids helping with their homework.  So sweet.  We hung out on the sidewalk, sipping our beer and wine and ignoring the green olives that were stuffed with something we couldn’t really identify.  We’re still stuffed from lunch anyway, we don’t need them!

Then we shop at Lidl, picking up snacks for dinner.  We figure there is no sense going out – we’re at the train station, a good distance from any restaurant and really, we’re still full, so snacks work fine.  One baguette, some chorizo and stuffed peppers later, and we are back to the hotel, checking in and hiking down to our room – which turns out to be this monstrous huge thing with an extra bed, a whole sitting area and a lobby like vestibule at the door.  Wow!  Perfect place to hang out and snack throughout the evening.  Which is what we do.

And tomorrow – it’s on to our 2^nd home – Barcelona!