Onto Zaragoza (Spain)

The doggies are very much like us. they hate leaving the bed in the morning ...

We left Bordeaux heading towards today's destination, Zaragoza in Spain.

Once out of the city the traffic was very light ...

It is quite hard to find shops open at lunch time in these parts!  Eventually we found this cafe at the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains so stopped there for a quick sandwich before continuing on ...

Yesterday I missed having the motorhome but today it was good to whizz through the mountain passes in a little car ...

Check out the old buildings on the side of the hill ...

and this one ... how did they build like that?

As we came round one bend we met a couple of farmers taking their cows for a walk ...

A little further along we went through a very long tunnel and suddenly we were in Spain ...

Sammie was enjoying the mountain air ...

But not for too long, it was soon back to navigating for him ...

Then it was time for a silly selfie ...

The hotel was near the Basilica, which was very easy to spot on the way in ...

Once we checked in I took a pic from our room ...

We arrived at 17.00, so we still had time to go for a walkabout ...

There is a huge religious fiesta going on ...

I'm not sure what the fairy tale is all about*, but they have built a huge flower pyramid, which smells divine ...

If you look carefully you can see people standing on the top of the pyramid

We sat and had a beer and watched the locals worshipping the flowers ...

It is a great city, and well worth a longer visit some time ...

Tonight's view from the side hatch (bedroom window).....not bad eh?

Tomorrow we head off to our final destination ... Mojacar.

*Elaine here ... thought I would add a bit about what the local fiesta is about, which is absolutely fascinating!  It is the Fiesta del Pilar which is an annual festival in honour of the patron saint of the city, the 'Virgen del Pilar' (Virgin Mary of the Pillar).  The Fiesta usually starts the weekend before the 12th October and lasts until the following Sunday ... so we just made it in time!

Evidently Zaragoza is linked by legend to the beginings of Christianity in Spain.  The Legend goes that the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint James in the first Century and gave him a wooden statue on a pillar of Jasper, instructing him to construct a Church in her honour ... which he did.  That Church was destroyed along the way and others that were subsequently built in its place but the current 'modern' building (built  between 1681 and 1782!) houses the wooden statue on the pillar.  

The flower pyramid is created by thousands of people bringing flowers, as an offering to the Virgin Mary, which are then placed in the pyramid structure by volunteers.  We sat and watched people queue for ages just to climb to the top of the pyramid - it must be such a huge thing for them to do.  It seems that this place is the second most visited pilgrimage destination in Spain after Santiago de Compostela. 

I love it when we 'come across' these amazing places ... the only reason we came here was because there was a cheap, pet friendly Ibis in the city!