When Ed and I went to Sicily years ago, we had this running gag of all the things we'd read or been told that were dead-wrong. One of them was "balmy Agrigento" which turned out to be frigidly cold in April. So Ed will often say "balmy Agrigento" when someone is feeding us a line. Well, no one told us that Zaragoza would be pleasantly warm, but it was in a word dead-hot. So hot in fact that the statues have to sit down and have a drink. Zaragoza started out as a bad joke because naughty Jane (our gps) led us to a private parking garage but the driveway we'd turned into led us only to a pedestrian plaza... Which Ed ultimately drove along--between cafe tables and around confused commuters--until we came to a side street. We finally found the hotel and parking and headed off to see the cathedral--it seemed important at the time with its dozens of cupolas of brightly painted ceramic tiles. The fountains were unusual too and the sight of water seemed to make us a little cooler. But somehow this was yet another city where eating was challenging. Every place recommended was closed or moved away; one had been in existence for over 100 years but it was literally torn down just that week. We did see some funny things in Zaragoza--the fancy hat shop was my personal favorite. It's not like Zaragoza isn't lovely but where on earth are these hats worn? The night ended badly--bad food, obnoxious service, worn-out kids from all the wandering around looking for an open restaurant. And when we finally got back to our hotel and to bed, the airconditioner was malfunctioning. So Ed decided to compound his driving crime with a little damage to property and snapped the ventilation arms one by one to allow a little more air in the room. Needless to say, we were quick to leave in the morning to seek comfort in our cool Passat.
