Category: Central Spain

Central Spain / Tourism

20 years later: Doer revisits Zaragoza (with Dreamer this time)

Twenty years ago, a young Doer visited Zaragoza with his friend Daniel, who had lived there as a child. Last February, he returned to the city, the capital of the autonomous community of Aragon and Spain’s fifth-largest city, with his Dreamer. Fuente de la Hispanidad. Doer’s favorite thing from that first visit – a stylized fountain depicting the Americas – was still around and pumping out water. Fountain at night. Before we jump in, however, please allow us a minor detour. Before we set out for the Madrid train station, that age-old conflict: Doer wanted to eat, and Dreamer was worried

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Central Spain / Madrid / Tourism

Toledo: Strange, beautiful mix of cultures

As American spring break approached, Dreamer’s Dad and his wife, Deb, who are teachers, took advantage of this time off to come see us. We planned to meet them at the airport in Madrid and have a fun weekend in Toledo before returning to Valencia to see the start of Las Fallas, our region’s biggest holiday (more about that in coming posts!). We began this journey as many before it: with a commuter train into Valencia. Despite the tardy train, everything worked out fine. We made our high-speed train connection with some time to spare, which is good, because our train car was waaaaaay

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Central Spain / Strolling / Tourism

Hanging Houses of Cuenca

We’ve been fans of Spain’s high-speed rail network, the AVE, since the first time we traveled on one of the trains last fall. After deciding to spend New Year’s Eve with my mom and Jim in Madrid, it made sense to first spend a couple of days in Cuenca, which is an easy stop between Valencia and the capital. Cuenca is most famous for its Casas Colgadas (Hanging Houses), which date back to at least the 15th Century. Unlike uncle Rhino and aunt Saint, these houses were built this way and are in no danger of collapse! Once there were many such houses, but

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