Day 10: Zaragoza & Barcelona

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Today we traveled to Zaragoza and Barcelona, where we will spend the next two nights.

Zaragoza

Zaragoza is linked by legend to the beginnings of Christianity in Spain. According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared miraculously to Saint James the Great in the first century, standing on a pillar. This legend is commemorated by a famous Catholic basilica called Nuestra Senora del Pilar("Our Lady of the Pillar").

The event, called "Las Fiestas del Pilar", is celebrated on October 12, which is a major festival day in Zaragoza. Since it coincided in 1492 with the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus, that day is also celebrated as El Día de la Hispanidad (Columbus Day), literally Hispanic Day) by Spanish-speaking people worldwide.

"El Pilar" lasts for nine days, with all kinds of activities: from the massively attended Pregon (opening speech) to the final fireworks display over the Ebro, there are bands, dances, procession of gigantes y cabezudos (carnival figures made of papier mache), concerts, exhibitions, the famous "vaquillas" bulls and the bull festival. Some of the most important features are the Ofrenda de Flores (flower offering) to the virgin on the 12th, when an enormous cloak is made of fresh flowers

Our Lady of the Pillar Basilica, Zaragoza, Spain

Our Lady of the Pillar Basilica and Plaza del Pilar.

 Ofrenda de Flores (flower offering) to the Virgin Mary is an enormous cloak made of fresh flowers on Plaza del Pilar in front of Our Lady of the Pillar Basilica.

Roman ruins next to Our Lady of the Pillar Basilica, Zaragoza, Spain.

The Sedenti, a tribe of ancient Iberians, populated a village called Salduie (Salduba in Roman sources). Later on, Augustus founded a city called Caesaraugusta at the same location to settle army veterans from the Cantabrian wars. The foundation date of Caesaraugusta has not been set with exact precision, though it is known to lie between 25 BC and 12 BC.

Zaragoza hosted Expo 2008 in the summer of 2008, a world's fair on water and sustainable development.

 Many of the rest stops in Spain are built so that they span the highway from one side to the other so as to serve both directions of traffic with the same building.

 Signs direct you to one side of the highway...

 ...or the other.

Barcelona

 

 The hallway of our hotel in Barcelona, Spain. The hallways of each floor of the Hotel Vincci Bit are decorated with graffiti murals by internationally recognized illustrators and designers.