Somehow I don’t have a great deal to say about Barcelona which is a little strange in that it’s one of our favorite cities in the world. It’s got pretty much everything you could want in a city: great food at sometimes amazing prices, mind-blowing modernista architecture along with great 19th century buildings, vibrant culture, and an old town that’s almost eerie in its medieval feel along with more modern and hip places. Oh, and then there’s that whole Mediterranean beach thing that they opened up when they removed a bunch of old manufacturing hulls for the 1992 Olympics.

So yeah, a great city. In fact, part of our conversation during the five nights we spent there was a debate: if Paris is our favorite city, what’s #2? Barcelona is certainly in the running. Maybe New York City? Miami Beach? Puerto Vallarta? I keep trying to put Minneapolis on the list but somehow it never stays for long. Fortunately we have a couple years at least to keep doing our research.

This trip to Barcelona was mostly about visiting with old friends. Way, way back when Mark & I were young professionals, practically new to D.C., Mark volunteered on Tom Harkin’s 1992 presidential campaign. That was the start of, well, everything really, as he later got a paid position on the campaign and then – when that whole presidential thing didn’t work out so well – a position on Harkin’s Senate staff. Later, working on his 2002 reelection campaign Mark built some software tools that eventually became the VAN which is what allows us to travel like this.

At any rate, the guy who brought Mark into Harkin World, Dan Smith, wrote a few months ago that he and his wife Lorraine (another one-time Harkinista) were going to be in Barcelona before going on to a wedding in Seville. Any chance we could meet up?

And meet up we did. We haven’t spent a lot of time with Dan & Lorraine over the last 20 years or so but soon it was as though we hadn’t been apart a bit. Meeting up for dinner one night turned into museum tours, lunches, another dinner, and even a day trip out to Montserrat, home to a Benedictine abbey and a black Madonna that, along with St. George, is one of Catalonia’s two patron saints. To say we had a great time is an understatement; in fact, before we parted ways we started initial plans to travel next year in Africa. I’d call that a successful visit!

The big attraction in Barcelona these days is the Sagrada Familia, a big old church started in 1882 and scheduled for completion in 2026 (though with decorative elements continuing into the 2030s). It’s hard to imagine a more unusual or striking piece of architecture anywhere in the world, with original architect Antoni Gaudí blending Gothic spires with Art Nouveau/Modernista swoops and curves. Part of the fun of returning to Barcelona after a couple years is to try to identify the new pieces and figure out how far they’ve come. As much as the current status is stunning it’s remarkable to know that they are just now starting construction on the final six (six!) giant towers.

Then there was a nice Picasso museum to tour and – an important part of any Barcelona experience – sampling tapas bars. We went back to old favorites like Ciudad Condal, discovered a new favorite or two like Cor Caliu with its to-die-for chicken salad. And catching up with Dan & Lorraine.

But alas, all good things must end so they’re off to Seville and we’re headed to Mallorca, the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands. Stay tuned.

The first thing I took note of in Zaragoza was as we were walking from the train station to our hotel and passed Caesar Augustus Square. Mark observed that the city was founded during the reign of Augustus and in fact was originally named “Caesaraugusta” which, if you say it enough times becomes “Zaragoza” or, as it was known in English for many years, Saragossa.

The city sits on the Ebro River, a favorite for crossword puzzle writers, and is today Spain’s fifth largest city. Over the centuries the Romans, Moors, and Spaniards all left their distinctive marks. We really enjoyed the city; though there was nothing explosively fabulous about it and we didn’t exactly start looking at real estate, it just had a great feel to it. There were lots of really attractive little plazas where for a couple bucks you could sit with coffee or sparkling water, read, and just watch a very pleasant life go by.

Here are some of Zaragoza’s hits and misses.

The first big site is the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, the Basilica of our Lady of the Pilar. The story, though I’m modestly skeptical, is that soon after the crucifixion (January 2, 40 AD to be precise) the apostle James was preaching in Spain, frustrated by his lack of progress. As he was deep in prayers by the Ebro River Mary – who was still very much alive – appeared, having been carried by angels to Spain. She told James to hang in there (or something to that effect) and gave him a pillar around which he was to build a church in her honor. According to legend that very pillar is still a part of the church, purportedly the first church in all of Christendom to be dedicated to Mary.

Now, admittedly I’m a skeptic, but the church itself is stunning. The current building dates from the 17th and 18th centuries in the Baroque style, but the exterior, with its huge dome and 10 smaller tiled domes has a distinctly Byzantine feel to it. Not only is the view from street level wonderful, you can take and elevator part way up one of the towers and then climb the rest of the way for great views across the city. A site not to be missed.

Next on the list, and surprisingly close, is La Seo, the Cathedral. Why you need a second huge Catholic church almost literally a stone’s throw away from the Basilica is another of those mysteries, but there it is. On the site of what was once Zaragoza’s main mosque – itself built on the onetime site of a Roman temple – the Cathedral dates from the 12th century, though extensive changes have been made over the centuries giving it quite a mishmash of architectural styles. Along with other buildings throughout Aragon, La Seo is part of the UNESCO Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon World Heritage site.

A third major site in Zaragoza is the Aljafería Place, built originally for the region’s Islamic rulers and later converted for use by the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand & Isabella. Another part of UNESCO’s Mudéjar World Heritage site, it is one of the oldest and largest remaining pieces of Spanish Islamic architecture. Until not that many years ago it lay mostly in ruins but over the last several decades the building has been beautifully restored. And interestingly today, the Aragonese legislature meets in a wing of the building.

Part of the city’s attraction for me was the Ebro River. They’ve built great walking/biking/running trails along both banks of the river, just inviting you down to enjoy it. As I would follow the river eastbound just a mile-and-a-half from the center of the city, suddenly you were out in the country on a little dirt road, just a great change from urban life. Cities were built on rivers, of course, for the transportation and trade opportunities but these days I love a city that has embraced its river for more pedestrian purposes.

Another great part of the city was Parque Grande, a huge public park maybe a mile-and-a-half south of the city center. The park has everything, including big fountains, long walkways, big hills and trees and just everything you could want in a park. One of the higher, more remote areas became my favorite afternoon reading spots.

As mentioned above, the city’s many plazas and squares were a big part of the joy of Zaragoza. I spent decades of my life wondering who these people were who could just sit at cafés sipping coffee, whiling away the hours, while I was always too busy. Well, now I’ve become one of them (minus the coffee) and I rather enjoy it.

Finally, the city’s Roman ruins – a theater, the remains of the Forum, public baths, and even the city’s river port – are allegedly part of the city’s attraction. Maybe I’m just spoiled but the ruins were really modest. As Mark put it after touring the Forum, they were the kind of ruins that make you hate touring ruins. So OK, no city is perfect.

Not perfect, no, but Zaragoza was really nice. Very pleasant. Now it’s on to Barcelona, a city we know based on plenty of experience that we will love.

From Valéncia (both the city and the state) it was off to Aragon, another of Spain’s 17 “autonomous communities” or effectively states. This one, though, has special appeal based on its history. Back in 1469 when King Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen Isabella of Castile, they united two of the ancient Spanish kingdoms to form the nucleus of what would become modern Spain.

You’ve probably heard of Ferdinand & Isabella, the royals who sponsored Christopher Columbus. Interestingly, though, they probably thought 1492 was an important year for a very different reason: it was the year they finally defeated the Moors of Granada, the last of the Moslem rulers in Spain thus completing the Christian reconquest. And if that wasn’t enough for one year it was also the year when, needing money to finance all this exploration and conquest, they expelled the Jews from Spain.

It’s worth noting that Ferdinand & Isabella had some pretty important descendants as well. Their daughter Catherine – Catherine of Aragon as she was known – was Henry VIII’s first wife. You know that story. When Henry tired of her he tried to get an annulment from the Pope (she’d briefly been married to Henry’s late brother, though she claimed that marriage had never been consummated). And when that failed Henry broke from the Roman Catholic Church. Kind of a big story.

Meanwhile their grandson Charles I succeeded Ferdinand and, because he was the first king to rule Aragon and Castile in his own right (Ferdinand ruled it because of his marriage), he is often described as the first Spanish king. He also inherited the Habsburg holdings and became the Holy Roman Emperor where he was Charles V. As his holdings expanded – Naples, Sicily, Navarre, the Netherlands, much of the New World – they were the first to be described as the empire “on which the sun never sets.”

In other words, Aragon was a big deal.

The first stop was Teruel a nice little city of about 35,000 people some 90 miles northwest of Valencia. Teruel’s big claim to fame is the stunning Mudéjar architecture. What the hell is that, I wondered. Well, mudéjar is the name given to the Spanish Moslems who remained in Spain, without converting, after the reconquest. The architectural result is a beautiful blend of Spanish and Islamic artistry in many of the buildings that remain from the Middle Ages and later; collectively, the Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We spent two days in Teruel and I quite enjoyed it. The number of things to do there is pretty limited; the Cathedral takes 15 minutes to see, there’s a tower to climb and a small museum to enjoy. For me there were two things about Teruel that I loved: admiring the unique architecture and long walks in the country. As such a small town it was easy to get out of town quickly and just walk (or run, in the morning) along very quiet roads. At one point, looking at Google Maps I realized that the two little streams that flowed together where I was walking along was the very start of the Turia River, the river that had been rerouted down in Valencia. Down there it was a big, dangerous river but up here it was a tiny stream.

Unfortunately Mark doesn’t like long country walks as much, so he wasn’t quite as keen on Teruel as I was. I’m sure he would say that he liked it, but not as much as I did. And all that wasn’t helped when we discovered that the two restaurants we identified in TripAdvisor as the places we would like to eat were both closed on both days we were there. Terrible.

Then it was a short bus ride just 25 miles or so to the tiny town of Albarracín, population 1,100. The attraction here is mostly the town itself and the old buildings lining the meandering streets. The town exists on a steep outcrop above a valley carved out by the River Guadalaviar, with ancient walls and a tower protecting it from invasion. Well, sort of protecting it. Though Albarracín was an independent kingdom for most of the 13th century, it was eventually defeated by and incorporated into Aragon.

There’s one sort of corny, overhyped legend from the town of a rich 13th century girl who fell for a poor 13th century boy. Her father refused his request for her hand as he was poor, so he joined the military to make his fortune with a promise that she would wait five years for his return. His military career was apparently more successful than mine, since just more than five years later he returned a wealthy young man. Unfortunately her father had married her off by then and, when she refused him just one kiss, he died of a broken heart. When she went to his funeral the next day she collapsed on his coffin, kissed his corpse, and proceeded to die as well. True or not (not), the story is a big deal in Albarracín and there’s a museum and statues and all sorts of references to it around town.

Otherwise there really wasn’t much to do in Albarracín except those long country walks that I love. Most of the modest sites in town – a castle, a cathedral, a museum – require you to tour with a guide and we pretty much hate touring with guides. So we just hung out. And oddly, though there are a number of restaurants in the city, they were almost all closed the entire two days we were there. No signs indicating days or hours just … closed up tight.

The other strange thing about Albarracín was the weather. The first day was just fine but the second – holy cow. Cold and overcast. Then a cold rain. Then, just as we were heading home after lunch, a hail storm. The rest of the afternoon was bizarre. Big thunderstorms then sunshine followed by rain, more thunder, more sunshine, more rain. And on and on.

OK, four days was enough to experience small-town Aragon. Next stop Zaragoza, Aragon’s capital.