Zaragoza - Day Two

This morning I headed to the 1903  Mercado Central, which was built on the same site as its 13th century counterpart. Apart from brick and stone the market was built with iron and glass and as such blends tradition and modernity together. It was fun to wander up and down the vegetable, dairy, fish and meat aisles, listening to the haggling. Zaragoza seems to have a church on every corner such as the Iglesia de San Nicolás and Monastery of the Resurrection with its 14th century Mudéjar façade and the 17th century Iglesia de Santa Isabel with its extraordinary front entrance depicting a variety of saints and cherubs. I next went to the Museo del Puerto Fluvial de Caesar Augusta, which showed the river-port installations of the Roman city linking the docks to the Forum and was called The Caesar Augusta Route. The nerve centre was the Forum and it was here that the local Senators would gather in the "Curia" to govern the city and pass laws and decrees. The River Ebro was navigable in those times right up to the port of Longroño and goods such as pottery, marble, amphorae of wine and salted products were brought in and traded. Cables were used to pull the boats upriver, but they could sail downstream. The Museum also showed the Public Baths, which were not only used for hygiene but also as a centre of cultural and social life. Adjacent to the Public Baths were the Latrines, which could seat 29 people at a time on benches with round holes around the wall. Underneath was a deep sewerage channel and in front of the benches at the feet of the users was a small channel providing clean water for ablutions. There was also a Theatre, which played a significant role in transmitting the cultural, political, and religious values of the Roman Empire. In the basement was a glass floor, which allowed one to look at the stone ruins from this 2,000 year old city. I followed my visit to the Caesar Augusta Museum by going to the Goya Art Museum to admire and absorb the Master's wonderful use of form and colour in his works. Goya not only rallied against the social injustice of those turbulent times, but he had a sense of humour to go with it and this is reflected in his prints and etchings. For example, in one of them he had two men bent ovet carrying donkeys on their backs. I finished the day by crossing the Ebro over the Puente de Piedra, an impressive stone bridge constructed in 1808, and strolling along the banks besides its gently flowing green waters. Tomorrow I take the train to Girona via Barcelona.