Zaragoza via Pamplona - Trev & Bill running with the bulls?

The bulls all run past
this building

Plaque for those who
died

So, we're off to run with the bulls in Pamplona.  Trev and Bill are really keen, and Lorraine and I will be there to cheer them on and pick up the pieces.  We arrive at the old city (after several hits and misses by Kate, our rather confused GPS) and we're ready to go, but wait..... oh no, we missed it!  We're about a month too late.  Trev and Bill are sooooo disappointed.  We'll just have to have a drink instead - that should get them back on track.  At least they won't have to be included in the plaque on the left...

We walked around town looking for souvenirs, and there are plenty of them, but this is probably the most expensive town we've been to in Spain.  Outrageous prices, so we didn't bother.  We had some lunch then moved on to Zaragoza.  

We drove through some desert country between Pamplona and Zaragoza and lost count of the number of wind farms and solar farms we passed.  Spain is certainly into providing alternative energy sources, and they have plenty of wide open spaces to do it.

Trev and I had visited Zaragoza on our trip in 2009 and we loved it. This time we had booked into a small hotel, the Hotel Rio Arga, in the middle of the old city and of course we had trouble locating it, as most of the narrow streets were one-way.  Trev and Bill set out on foot to find it as we'd reached an impasse, and eventually came back with instructions on how to get there.  We pulled into the little street behind a couple of policeman telling people to move on - we told them we were checking into the hotel and they pulled us to one side to allow us to get our luggage out - very helpful.  

Our rooms were interesting (understatement).  There were no windows, but there was a big skylight right above our bed to let in some light.  The furnishings were a delightful turquoise laminate, and our wardrobe was just big enough for a pygmy to stand up in.  The shower over the bath was about 1.5m high, attached to a sloping roof, so Trev had fun trying to get wet.  But, it was a good price and an excellent location.

The city is an interesting mix of old and new, with the main plaza dominated by the beautiful Basilica of Our lady of Pilar, and beautiful modern water sculptures.  At night the square and surrounding streets are lit by golden wrought-iron streetlights and it looks spectacular.  

We had a lovely time here and discovered some lovely places to eat and drink - at least by this time we're more in sync with the eating times. 

Next we're back to Barcelona to spend a few nights before heading home.  Trev and Bill had booked a motel in Castelldefels near Barcelona a few days earlier, so when we got back to our hotel I checked our reservation for the address and other details.  Good job that I did!  As I read through our booking conditions I noticed a paragraph that said:  'Please note that Motel Punt 14 also functions as a love hotel' - what?????  I read it again, then realised that our wonderful men had booked a 'rent by the hour' hotel for us to spend our last few days in Spain!  We were so happy! 

After a quick conference with Lorraine and two very sheepish men, we decided to see if we could cancel our booking and find somewhere else.  So, the next couple of hours I was on the phone and email to Booking.com.  I explained the situation to a lovely lady called Christa in Amsterdam, who laughed out loud when I told her what our men had done, and she said she would do her best to try and cancel the booking without incurring cancellation fees.  After a couple of hours she called back to say she had spoken to the hotel, and managed to get them to cancel without penalty.  A big 'thank you' to Christa.  I managed to book a hotel with a swimming pool near the airport for our last few days, so that's where we're off to next.