Zaragoza and Madrid

On Sunday morning after our week in Barcelona, Chris headed back to Sweden. I was on my way to a conference in Zaragoza, which is southwest of Barcelona. There's a high speed train that leaves from the central station. I waited on a friend of mine from work to arrive before leaving for Zaragoza. It gave me about 6 more hours in Barcelona. After Chris left, I went to the usual breakfast spot, then promptly headed to the beach.

 

 

After a couple of hours I decided it was time for lunch and went back to what had been my favorite place to eat during the week, The Chill Bar. It is one block from the Sagrada Família, so it is super easy to reach by metro. It is a dive, hole in the wall kind of place. There are 4 sidewalk tables with a handful of tables inside. There's no AC so all the outside tables were taken. It couldn't have been more perfect, sweltering heat and hummus in a run down dive.

 

At least they got a fan for me

The week in Zaraagoza was great. The weather stayed great and the tapas continued. Around the corner from the hotel was a pedestrian shopping street with a beautiful old church. I spent a lot of time with my friend Zoë. We went to talks at the conference during the day and walked around in the sun during the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of very interesting shops

 

Zoë

 

Not your traditional tapas

I even got my hair cut and colored while I was there. My Spanish friends had told me to be sure and get my hair done in Spain, that it was way cheaper, and they were right!

 

We had a lovely view of the city from our hotel rooftop and spent time hanging out there before dinner each night.

 

 

At the same time of the neutron scattering conference, there was a high pressure conference in Madrid. It is only a little over an hour by high speed train to Madrid. On Thursday the morning session was on the research I did as a grad student. A colleague of mine and I hopped the train in the morning. After the morning session I took the metro into the heart of Madrid. A good friend, Maddi, went to university in Madrid. I emailed and asked her if she had any suggestions for lunch. By an awesome coincidence, I was on the street and only one block away from the place she suggested, 80 degrees. It is a tasting menu restaurant with very reasonable prices. I had tomato gazpacho, mushroom gnocchi, and vanilla pudding, delish!

 

I had a quick walk through some cute shops, then went back to the college campus where the conference was held. I spent my last hour napping in the sun. I had to soak up all the warmth I could, I was headed back to cold the next day.

 

 

I felt lucky for two weeks in Spain, and I could have easily stayed two more!

 

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