we met at the singapore changi airport 9:30pm for our 11pm flight. aisle seat, yay! ver sat beside a not bad looking guy, but who dont seem very keen to smile...
after 12 hours and 25 mins we transit at frankfurt for a hot cuppa chocolate
and we spotted beer in mccafe?
we travelled through a very very long travelator to our gate and up into the air again to barcelona.
they served sandwiches on the 2 hours flight which come in interesting packaging. every package introduces a different kind of food and where it originates.
estimated arrival at barcelona was about 10am and the sky was clear. i dont usually do this but i stick my camera on the aircraft window and started snapping away. not knowing what i was snapping only to learnt later that some of the views will be caught (on the opposite) on a church tower during the last days. if you look closely at the 1st 2 shots, you can spot the sagrada familia, europe's most unconventional church. construction started 1882 and is still now rising.
we finally arrived at the barcelona aeropuerto and searched our way to the train station via an overhead bridge.
human traffic would really be rendered much smoother if the boarding passengers would allow the alighting ones to get off 1st and not blocking the way.
whilst waiting for our train to zaragoza, we had our lunch at a cafeteria. we discovered the 'cheesecake' below, which unknowing to us at that time, would become 1 of our favoured food during our trip. except, this was not chessecake, its 'tortilla', spanish omelette of potato bound with egg.
after one and a half hour of journey, we arrived in zaragoza! spain's 5th largest city. it was also quoted that zaragoza is one of the cities with some of the most striking mudejar monuments.
this seems to be the shortest ride comparatively to other between cities travel, maybe due to the fact that this is an express train.
after some searching, we finally managed to identify where and which bus to take to the city centre, where our hotel is located. i wonder where the cable cars are heading...
our bus stop places us in front of this buidling. the 1st sight i took in, although it may not be significant.
as we search our way to the city centre, we passed this coin operated public toilet. i wonder if this works like those in paris where the door will automatically spring open if you are in there for more than 3mins...
it is said that zaragoza takes its name from the roman settlement of cesaraugusta, and besides being spain's 5th largest city, it is the capital of aragon.
below in the middle of the roundabout, is a monument to the martyrs, inaugurated 23 oct 1904. designed by ricardo magdalena and bronze casted by agustin querol. this monument represents the idea of immortalising the memory of the numerous christians who were martyred in the square and those who died defending their ideal during the war of independence.
as we walk along
still searching
we spotted our 1st chinese restaurant. along our journey, i realised that all chinese restaurant are labeled chino restaurante.
we finally found our hotel sauce!
although this city was largely rebuilt being badly damaged during the war of independence, the old centre still managed to retain some interesting buildings. which brings us to the next part of our exploration... Labels: life's journey, some happening