Desert Country

We finally left the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea today, driving inland to the Aragónese town of Zaragoza. We're killing a bit of time before we go and have dinner (the Spanish eat dinner between 8 pm and midnight), which we are very excited about, as we are in the "unofficial tapas capital of Spain", and by logical extension, the world.


Anyway, I digress. The drive to Zaragoza was nothing short of amazing. The difference in climate and landscape on the southern side of the Pyrénées is stark, with lush forests and rolling hills giving way (once the crossing of the Pyrénées has been made) to arid, sandy plains and jutting mountains.

Nowhere have we seen this type of landscape as pronounced as on our drive from Sitges to Zaragona, which is a city of 700,000 pretty much situated right in the middle of what appears to be relatively inhospitable semi-desert. In fact, the landscape here reminds me a lot of Western Australia north of Perth. However, despite the conditions (or maybe because of them - I'm no expert in viticulture), plenty of wine is grown here.

We're spending just one night here and then heading to the Basque city of San Sebastian on the north Atlantic coast to get back to the beach!