It's 100 Degrees and Everything Is Closed.

Zaragoza means Cesar Augusta. I know, now that you look at it you’re thinking, of course it means Cesar Augusta! Zar - agoza.*

And this is one of the most interesting things about this city.

The most interesting thing about Zaragoza is Leire. The shortcut I often take in explaining Leire to others is she is my Spanish/Basque sister. This is all you really need to know in understanding that I had a need to visit wherever she was, Zaragoza included. And seeing her, catching up and drinking cañas in hidden back alley bars and eating ridiculously soft pork on bread - that was why this city was so important to see.

Beyond that, there is a bit of “polished turd” quality to the place. Zaragoza is clean, straight lined, easily walked and fairly green. There is an accidentally discovered Roman Ampitheater in the center of the city that you can visit for $3. People don’t really smile at you because you aren’t from the neighborhood. There are huge fountains that children swim in and old men dangle their feet into. And on Sundays, everything is closed.

Like, everything is closed. Like, I have to walk a mile to the nearest open grocery store and forget about going out to eat or shop - CLOSED.

The only things not closed are museums, which remain open for the tourists, though we weren’t able to pick out more than a few. To pass our time we walked to the Aljaferia, a moorish palace on the edge of the city, which is supposed to be interesting.

The palace looks cool. It has a dry moat and really fancy turrets. And then you go inside. What. The. Heck. As it turns out, the original palace was destroyed by the Christians (surprise!) who rebuilt their own thing on top, and then hired a Middle-Eastern designer to try to keep some foreign flare. All of the information available follows a formula: Name:Date:Architecture Features. That was it! A remade semi-palace with an odd art exhibition upstairs of broken baby parts and lots of parents telling their children to stand for pictures everywhere.

Zaragoza Sundays. We ate frozen pizza for dinner, cooked frozen pizza.

So if you know Leire, take a bus or train to the very clean and airy Zaragoza station and get your industrial city on. And if not, you’ve been informed.

*In case that still didn’t ring a bell, Zar = Czar = Cesar. Agoza = Augustus (like Agosta = August.)