Madrid and Zaragoza - first acquaintance
Day eight of the "Two Poles of Passion" round
First acquaintance - Zaragoza and Madrid
Part 1 Zaragoza
Morning departure at 8:00. Yesterday we did not go at all with a group, so I listen with interest to stories about the elective course at Montserrat Monastery. There was not a single bad review, and everyone who went there really liked it. I, last year, was also very impressed by the Black Madonna for a long time.
And today we are driving towards Madrid with a stop in Zaragoza. Zaragoza is 307 km away. And now at 11-50 we arrived at the Aljaferia Palace. We have two hours to visit Zaragoza. This run is for warming up the legs. But we saw the main highlights of the city.
Near the palace we are met by a local guide for Zaragoza Dinara. I want to note that it was the weakest guide for the entire tour. She works without a microphone, her voice is weak, and even she chose the most unfortunate places for her stories, where there was a strong noise of public transport.
There is a short photo stop near the palace and we move on to the city center. The Aljaferia Palace was built in the Moorish style and was once the residence of the Moorish kings. Around the palace is not too deep a moat, in which gardens of olive trees grow. Now the palace houses the parliament of the province of Aragon.
After the palace, we are led to the monument to the Heroes of Zaragoza.
We arrived in the city during the feast of Saint Pilar, which was on October 12, and signs of folk festivals were visible everywhere in the city. In the square, near the monument to the Heroes of Zaragoza, the entire area was sticky with spilled drinks. This monument was erected in memory of the 54 thousand dead inhabitants of the city in the war with Napoleon. After this battle, the word "Heroic" is added to the name of Zaragoza.
Further, our path passes by the Arena to the main square of the city.
On the way we pass by an interesting monument dedicated to the 4 names of the city, in the form of 4 ten-meter square arches made of local stone.
At the Arena in Zaragoza, just on the eve of the feast of St. Pilar, there was a pre-holiday bullfight, and one of the matadors received a severe head injury from a bull's horn. I don’t even watch such passions on TV, and even more so in life. I am equally sorry for the bulls and the people involved in bullfighting. But it is impossible to imagine Spain without bullfighting. Therefore, I respect this centuries-old tradition of the country.
And on the main square, near the Basilica of St. Pilar, there was a huge pyramid of baskets and wreaths of fresh flowers in honor of the patroness of Spain and the city of St. Pilar. The city hall is also located on the square, and a stage was erected next to it, and local artists performed on it. When we passed by, then, just on this stage, children in national costumes danced flamenco.
In general, the entire city center was filled with people. Many were in national costumes. So we witnessed the festivities in Zaragoza. And I liked how they actively celebrate their holiday.
By the way, we did not see drunk people, it was fun, but cultural.
We went to the Basilica of St. Pilar, and there, right there, the wedding of the newlyweds was going on, and the organ was playing. It was very interesting to see how the ceremony was going on, and I noticed that there was no crowd of relatives near them. There were only newlyweds and their witnesses. And all the other relatives sat quietly on the benches in the cathedral and waited for the end of the ceremony.
And in a place of honor in the basilica hang two bombs from the civil war. These bombs fell on the basilica, but did not explode, and the people of Saragossa believed that it was Saint Pilar who had saved the basilica from destruction. Well, the bombs were defused and hung inside the basilica.
A separate chapel was built for the figurine of St. Pilar in the middle of the basilica. And just outside this chapel there was a long line of people wishing to touch the Holy Virgin. There were especially many children of different ages in the queue.
We quietly passed by, taking a few pictures.
There is also a modern attraction on the central square. This is a fountain in the form of a mountain waterfall. It seemed to me that he did not fit the old buildings too much.
Zaragoza is the birthplace of the great Spanish artist Goya, whose paintings we will see tomorrow in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Spain's largest river, the Ebro, flows through the city, and the main square is located next to the waterfront. We go ashore, and from there, from the bridge with lions, we get a beautiful photo of the basilica.
Although we spent only two hours in Zaragoza, it was enough to understand how original and interesting this city is for tourists.
Our bus followed us along the embankment right to the bridge, with lions, and it's time for us to return to the bus. At 14 o'clock we go further to Madrid.
Part 2- Madrid
It's time for lunch, and I take out our supplies, which I cooked the night before in a hotel in Barcelona. To Madrid to go again 324 km. and we have plenty of time to eat and rest.
While driving, I observed how strikingly different landscapes outside the window were from those that we had seen before. Dry bare mountains and stunted vegetation floated past the window. Sometimes, on high hills next to the road, there were huge figures of black bulls with huge horns, made of flat shields and mounted on metal frames. It reminded us that we are in Spain. And just before Madrid, the landscape began to change towards green vegetation.
We arrived in Madrid at 5:45 pm.
While we were driving, the guide to Madrid Alina called and warned that they were going to hold a rally in Madrid on Sol Square, and the police blocked the passage to the center. Therefore, Marina arranges a meeting with the guide in another place, and, having picked her up, we go to the western park in the area of Plaza Españ a, for a walking tour of the city.
As Alina told us, they usually conduct a survey of Madrid by bus, with a photo disembarkation in several places, but due to the fact that the center for transport is closed, we will cover almost the entire route on foot. As they say, there is no evil without good.
And so, having started our walking tour at 18-20 from the Egyptian temple from Debod, we pass through the park to the Plaza of Spain. The sun is still shining, and the temple itself in daylight somehow did not make an impression.
The Egyptian temple was donated to Spain by the Egyptian government as a token of gratitude for the preservation of the ancient Nubian temples, after the construction of the Aswan Dam, when it was necessary to protect these monuments from flooding. In addition to Spain, the United States and the Netherlands also received monuments from Egypt as a gift for the mission to save the monuments of Nubia.
In the Plaza de Españ a there is a huge monument with a fountain to Miguel Cervantes and his two main characters: Don Quixote and Sancho Panso.
There are also several beautiful tall monumental buildings from the middle of the last century.
We are given 15 minutes of free time for a photo session. There is also a souvenir market here. But we did not find fridge magnets there, and the rest did not interest me.
Then we move to the royal palace, but there today we only have an external inspection. Tomorrow we will have an optional visit to the royal palace, so we do not stay there for long.
Then, past the opera house, we move in the direction of Mayor Square. Along the way, Alina talked a lot and interestingly about the history of Madrid. We did not go to Sol Square, because a rally had begun there, and the police were standing. My husband also photographed me with the Madrid police. They didn't mind, they just asked where we were from. The country of Ukraine was known to them.
On Mayor Square, we again have a little time for a photo, and then we return back a little by a different way, but it was already dark, and the city appeared in a completely different way. Particularly spectacular with illumination was just the Nubian temple.
Our walking tour lasted a full two hours and our last illuminated Nubian temple photo was taken at 8:40 pm.
Boarding the bus near the temple, and we go to the settlement in the hotel.
By the time we got through the traffic jams in Madrid, it had probably been an hour. But finally our hotel Husa Chamartin 4 *. We will check in at about 22:00.
When checking in there was a hitch with the elevators. Not all tourists immediately figured out how to use the elevators correctly, so they took a little ride between the floors : )))
But then everyone figured it out, and everyone found their floors.
The hotel is very decent, of course, not the same as in Andorra, but we also liked it. And its most important advantage is the metro station under the hotel, and a large empty refrigerator. First of all, I unload all my food supplies into it and cook dinner. Today we had a rather eventful day, and tomorrow it will be even more eventful. Therefore, you need to eat well and rest. We took care of this back in Barcelona.
