My first stop (after flying into Madrid) was Zaragoza, Spain, where I
spent the week. I attended a conference as well as did a little exploring
on food. The weather in mid-March was warm-ish in the days but cool-ish
in the evenings and mornings—call it a low of 10°C/50°F
and a high of 25°C/77°F.
My hotel was near the Plaza España, near the city centre/old town area
which is where the Pillar Bascilica is which is the center of everything.
The Ebro River runs east/west, and our conference was at the University
of Zaragoa's engineering campus which was on the north side of the river,
so I took the tram to get there and back daily.
It was also the week before Easter, and people go a bit Easter crazy.
I don't have photos of that here (yet).
Note (July 21, 2024): Cellphone photos
haven't been incorporated into the collection yet. I figured there's
no reason to delay publishing these.
(Jump right to the pictures
and skip all the blah-blah-blah.)
Photography note:
For some of the panoramic/composite images that I used Photoshop to
"stitch" together, I also used the Photoshop "warp" feature to fix the
distortions caused by me not using (having) a tripod (with the right
mount) when I took the picture. This feature was new to me, but has
probably been in Photoshop for 15-20 years. By unwarping
the image, it looks more like what I saw when I took the picture,
as opposed to just cropping the images, sometimes losing parts of the
picture I wanted. On occasion, I'd leave it as a mosaic of images that
look like some sort of photo ransom note. I try not to do too much
digital manipulation, but I've removed lens spots in blue skies or
grey clouds too in the past.
I also changed up the thumbnail image gallery CGI code to accomodate
all of these "panoramic" shots. The old code put them on their own
line since it was typically a very wide picture. Many of these pictures
are only slightly larger than the normal version, so I changed the code
to scale all thumbnail images to fit in the landscape or portrait
shape depending on whether it's tall or wide.
Also, I took some pictures using a test smartphone. It was lightweight
which was a plus, but a pain in the ass in ever other way. And the images
it produces are highly altered and adjusted that do not really reflect
reality. For simplicity's sake, I decided I'll upload all of my Nikon DSLR
pictures first, and then add the phone ones (when I have time).
¬Frank (April 28, 2024).
001-DSC_8022-header: View from my Hotel at Night
001-DSC_8022-headertext:
My hotel had a balcony and I took a few pictures from there. 001-DSC_8022: Iglesia Parroquial de San Gil Abad 002-DSC_8025: Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar) 003-DSC_8027: Cathedral of the Savior of Zaragoza (Catedral del Salvador) 004-DSC_8031: Looking down 7 floors to the street below at night. 005-Savior_of_Zaragoza_Cathedral_Panorama1-header: Walking by the Ebro River 005-Savior_of_Zaragoza_Cathedral_Panorama1-headertext:
The day after I arrived in Zaragoza, I walked into the old town City Centre area, north to the Ebro River, crossed the river, and then walked along the north shore, and eventually came back. It was a pleasant day, though a bit of a gray sky. 005-Savior_of_Zaragoza_Cathedral_Panorama1: Cathedral of the Savior of Zaragoza (Catedral del Salvador), a church with tapestries. 006-Pilar_Cathedral_Panorama2: Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar), essentially the center of Zaragoza. 007-DSC_8040: The River Ebro looking east to the Puente de Hierro (Iron Bridge) from the Puenta de Piedra. 008-DSC_8041: Looking to the north side of the river from the Puente de Piedra (Foot Bridge). 009-DSC_8042: A Spanish bird! (Other bird pictures are elsewhere in this trip.) 010-puenta_de_piedra_Panorama3: Looknig north on a lookout point on the Puente de Piedra across the Ebro River. 011-Pilar_Cathedral_Panorama1: The Pilar Basilica from the Ebro River (Puenta de Piedra). 012-puenta_de_piedra_Panorama4: The lookout points from the Puenda De Piedra on the Ebro. 014-puenta_de_piedra_Panorama2: The backs of bronze lions on the north side of the bridge. 015-DSC_8061: Bronze lions also guard the south side of the bridge. 016-DSC_8062: Every now and then one of the fountains would spray up water for a few seconds. 017-DSC_8063: Footbridge across the Ebro River with the Basilica behind it. 018-puenta_de_piedra_Panorama5: A panorami shot of the footbridge across the Ebro River with the two Churches (Savior of Zaragoza and Lady of the Pillar). 019-puenta_de_piedra_Panorama1: Another view of the Basilica and the footbridge. 021-DSC_8072: A view of the Footbridge from the north side of the Ebro looking west. 022-DSC_8073: 023-DSC_8074: The same subjects from a slightly different, lower perspective. 024-wall_Panorama1: In retrospect, all in all, it really was just bricks in the wall... 025-DSC_8079: Piegeons making their homes in gaps in the wall. 026-DSC_8080: 027-DSC_8081: A view of the Basilica from the Puente de Santiago (St. James Bridge). 028-DSC_8082: Helios is a sports club/gym place just west of the Puente de Santiago. 029-Ebro_river_Panorama1: Looking west from the Puente de Santiago on the Ebro. 030-Cesar_Augusto_church_Panorama1: Church of San Juan de los Panetes (ignore the file name, it's by the Cesar Agusto monument). 031-DSC_8089: The Central Market to the right, and restaurants to the left. In the center of the (full size) picture, not the fellow sitting in a chair with sea-green hair literally with an Irish flag wrapped around him (consisting of three bands: green, white, and orange). I was told Ireland had won some international rugby championship that day, so I'm guessing he's Irish, a fan of the winning team, or both. 032-DSC_8090: The Samaritan Fountain on the Plaza del Justicia. 033-Pilar_Cathedral_Panorama3: Fuente de la Samaritana (Samaritan Fountain) on the Plaza del Justicia, facing the Iglesia de Santa Isabel de Portugal. 034-DSC_8095-header: Zaragoza Streets 034-DSC_8095-headertext:
I spent most of my time near the old town city centre. Like most
of the older areas I saw in Spain, it has a look that combines older
European cities and what I imagine to be a sort of arabian layout
that I've seen in adventure or thriller movies from the 20th Century.
And by that I mean, all the buildings are of a similar, almost uniiform
height of 4 or 5 stories, narrow streets, and not a single fucking
one of them is straight! Every street is shaped like a J or an S
or possibly some cursive script form that's even more twisty. Sometimes
intersections have 4 streets, sometimes more, sometimes less. The
main point is that there's no view of the horizon, and the only thing
you know is that if you enter a street going in a certain direction,
you won't be going in that direction at the other end of it.
Another thing that I'm guessing is common in Europe is that street
names only apply for a a few blocks. Then the street changes its name.
On the plus side, given just a street address, you could generally get
within +/1 a block of your destination. The downside is that unless
you have a detailed map of the city, odds are that any given street name
is mostly useless because you'll never find it on a map. So a GPS map,
planning ahead, or having a detailed street map is often needed. I
usually used the latter approach because I know I look like a lost
tourist anyway.
I walked around the area around the hotel, which was near the Plaza España.
If I was wandering around the old town area, say, looking for a place to
get dinner, often I'd see a place or two that would be a candidate, and
then when I decided what was the best option, I'd have diffiulty finding
it again unless it was on one of the main streets (which are probably more
modern, have different sized buildings alongside them, and contrary to
what I said above are straight) or I wandered around for 15 minues and
passed it again. If this were an adventure game, I would constantly be
forgetting to save my progress as I went.
034-DSC_8095:
035-Zaragoza_street_Panorama1:
041-DSC_8234: We happened to join up with the rest of the DFRWS people
at the end of their tour, right after our board meeting ended.
042-spider_wall_shop_Panorama1: ♪♪
Spider ant, spider ant, Never say to them don't or can't,
Can they crawl, up a wall? Take a look make the call... ♪♪
043-DSC_8239: A cute, oddball mural on a wall (he is getting a bit cocky).
044-Zaragoza_musuem_Panorama1: Palacio de los Condes de Sástago (The Palace
of the Counts of Sástago) was built in the late 1500s and often served as
a residence of visiting kings. It has served different purposes over
the years, became a National Monument in 1974, was acquired by the
Provincial Council of Zaragoza in 1981, and now serves as an exhibition
hall hosting art exhibits, conferences, musical performances and more.
While there, it had art from the region. I was allowed to take pictures
of the inside of the building, but not the art in the exhibit.
044a-IMG_2002: Frank looking at the ceiling, thinking of taking a picture.
045-DSC_8244: Ceiling of the Palacio de Sástago.
046-DSC_8245: Stain-glass window with the Spanish Coat of Arms at
Palacio de Sástago.
047-DSC_8246: Hotel Aragon with striking Yellow tarps retracted.
(See the night shot TBD.)
048-DSC_8248: Frank shows off a big Spanish door that has normal-sized
mini-doors built in (in front of the Palacio de Sástago).
049-DSC_8252: A hand-door knocker. Neat!
050-DSC_8253: A cool doorway—the silhouetted person walked by right as
I took the picture. This building used to be where court hearings for the
region (Aragon) where held.
053-DSC_8258: A very woody looking plant seed store. I just poked my head in
for the picture.
054-IMG_2043: Frank showing off another Spanish door—this time,
more glassy than spiky.
054a-DSC_8259: Frank and Daryl taking pictures of their reflection by the
central market, semi-anonymously. Here's
her picture.
055-DSC_8260: World Ball (Bola Del Mundo) sculpture on the Plaza De Pillar.
055a-IMG_2058: Daryl and Frank by the Pilar Basilica (and World Ball).
056-DSC_8262: Niños con Peces sculpture with Daryl and the Cathedral of the
Savior behind it.
057-DSC_8263: Now that's a big door!
058-DSC_8264: They have lots of big doors in Spain. Bit pointy doors.
060-DSC_8423: Just to the right of the belltower are snowcapped mountains.
061-DSC_8424: Snowcapped mountas are immediately to the left of the
belltower.
Bottom:
And finally, every day for a week, I'd pass by a street a block away
from the hotel and the same question/Simpsons quote
would go through my mind. I knew I had to do my own take on it.
So the last night I was in town, on the way back to the hotel after dinner,
I recorded this. And for the record, it was named after some dude (whose
name means pee-pee...OK, it's spelled with 1 r, but I can't roll r's so
it'd all sound the same coming out of my gringo mouth).
