Zaragoza; Friday, 13 March, 2015

I had a nice long lie in and eventually made it down to breakfast gone 10 to discover I had the whole of the breakfast room to myself with most people clearly having eaten earlier.

From the hotel I headed out into town to take in some of the key sights. First up was a long visit to and wander round the Roman Theatre and then a quick look round the Roman Bath.

I headed back to the main square to have a look round the remains of the Forum, but it was closed – as it would be for the whole trip – due to technical problems. Instead I headed into the neighbouring cathedral to have a look around including its tapestry museum.

After the cathedral I was just in time to take the last presentation (by myself so they ran it in English for me) at the Puerto Fluvial, the former Roman river gate, which helped cement the city as an important trading site in Roman Iberia.

By now it was just gone 2pm which I’d managed to find out from reading the guide book was when most Zaragozans have their main meal of the day, so in an attempt to blend in with the locals I found a very nice restaurant and had a very large and very nice lunch.

Stuffed from lunch, and with 30 minutes to go until the museums reopened I decided to take the time to wander along the riverside down the kilometre or so to the Aljafería Palace.

The palace has served as a Moorish palace; a home to the Spanish kings and queens; the local base for the Spanish Inquisition and today the home of the parliament of the autonomous commune of Aragon. When the parliament isn’t sitting it’s the site of an impressive museum and I spent a long time wandering round the strange mix of Moorish and Spanish architecture.

From the palace I caught the bus back over to the hotel to freshen up and to wait for dinner, which thankfully this time I didn’t have to worry too much about being late given the size of the lunch I’d had.