Kings adventures: Ustaritz to Zaragoza to Tramacastilla de Tena

We had breakfast at 7.30 am - bread toasted with butter and homemade watermelon jam - pasteque - and there were pains au chocolat. Jim was delighted to have mine as well as his own. Natalia sat with us and had a coffee. That meant that I was able to discover that pasteque is watermelon which is made into a jam when there is a glut of watermelons.

The early part of the journey from Ustaritz was very stressful - a lot of traffic and a lot of rain so visibility was not good. However, things improved. We arrived in Zaragoza at about 11.45 so had time to see the Cathedral before our scheduled meeting with Elizabeth (our home exchanger) at 12.30.

This is Fuente de la Hispanidad in Plaza del Pilar in Zaragoza.

The Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar is the dominant building in this Plaza.

What wealth is in the Catholic Church!

Lots of beings lounging about!

Goya was born in the village of Fuendetodos in the Aragonese mountains about an hour's drive from Zaragoza. His statue presides over the square.

After our visit to the Basilica/Cathedral we walked about a bit and then ordered a coffee at El Real where we were to meet Elizabeth. She arrived while we were drinking it. She has great English because she went to school in Buenos Aires - a private English school. She gave us Aragon Chocolate fruit sweets (which were very nice especially when chilled in the fridge) and a salami stick and after coffee she brought us on a tour of the Plaza.

We went to see the Moorish Church from the outside. This is a very beautiful building and we were disappointed not to be able to get inside to have a look.

Then we had a walk about and saw the ubiquitous Irish Pub.As we strolled about I was really conscious of the possibility of an atrocity like in Barcelona. A lot of streets had white vans parked across them as if to prevent some rogue driver intent on damage.There was a huge police presence - and they were talking very seriously with very concerned demeanours!

We had a sandwich lunch and set off for Tramacastilla de Tena. The scenery was lovely en route. We stopped in Sabinanigo at the Mercadona for supplies. It had fantastic fish but that was a bit daunting as I wasn't sure what the cooking facilities would be like. We got the wherewithal for dinner and went on our way. When we got the instruction from Nuvi to turn left it was such a sharp turn that Jim didn’t take it so Nuvi redirected us to a very twisty narrow road that required full attention despite the spectacular scenery. That meant that we were coming into town in the opposite direction from Elizabeth and Fernando's’s map. However, we found the restaurant and school they had mentioned but made several attempts to find our location. Finally I insisted that Jim go back to the Lavedan restaurant and follow the directions from there. And we found the garage and found the house and all was well once we unpacked the car. We had a look about town - very hilly but very beautiful with some lovely houses. There were lots of bar/restaurants but they were mostly closed until 8pm. The sports ground just across from us seems to be busy with kids and grownups playing football and basketball.