Main altar, Basílica de Nuestra Señora del PilarI thought I'd begin this entry with a photo of one of our most visited sites: the Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar. first of all, it's always cool inside. Second, it's free. Third, it's beautiful (although Ben and I agree that the Gothic Catedral de La Seo is a prettier church. In an interesting resolution to a church dispute over who would get to be the "real" cathedral in Zaragoza, a church court decided that both El Pilar and La Seo would house the exact same number of priests, and that the bishop would reside for 6 months in one, and six in the other. Very King Solomon-like (without cutting the baby in half). The funny thing about it is that Tom Brady could chuck a football from the doorway of one church and land it in the other.
The title of this entry fairly well describes the overall mood this week. We're kind of in a holding pattern, waiting to officially go on vacation to Albacete and Valencia for the next two weeks to visit Ximo and his family. We've spent the last few days just avoiding the heat and going food shopping. We now go every day to Le Petit Croissant, the best bakery in Zaragoza, for our bread. It's fairly cheap , to Americans, an all of their breads are amazing.
On Saturday we will take a train to Madrid, and then another to Albacete where Llani (Ximo's sister) will pick us up. The train to Madrid is an AVE (a play on words, as "ave" is Spanish for "bird", and the AVE stands for "Alta Velocidad de España," meaning "high speed Spanish .") The AVE does the 3 1/2 hour drive in just 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Speaking of Ximo, he just returned for another quick visit on his way to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim museum there. He and his girlfriend stayed over last night and we went out for tapas, where Ben discovered that he likes calamares (squid) and "brave potatos." Also, when Ximo arrived he loaned me his car, and Chaia an d I went to pick up some new chairs for the living room. Some of the furniture is pretty old and tired in the piso, and the chairs are so uncomfortable that Andee and I watched a movie the other night (Blazing Saddles) while sitting on the tile floor. Anyways, Chaia and I drove out to the edge of the city where there is an (say it with me, Denise) i..i..i..iKEA. The new chairs are MUCH better, and hey, we got to go to IKEA (air conditioned, BTW)!
That's all for now. Send me a message if you have any questions about ZAZ, our piso, food, whatever, or if you would like to see me elaborate on a particular topic.
