The Wheels On The Bus... Yeah...

So, the class trip to Huesca area in the north of Spain was cool. We spent over five hours on the bus every day, so that was... great. But the north of Spain is absolutely beautiful. I would love to live up there someday.
The first place we visited was the medieval castle Loarre that was part of the Christian north's defense of their border with the muslim territories in the south. It was the base camp of the King of Aragon's conquest of the surrounding muslim cities so that he could create the larger more powerful Kingdom of Aragon from which came Katharine of Aragon who married Henry VIII. Pretty cool stuff. The castle itself is perched just on the edge of one of the outlying ranges of the Pyrenees and overlooks hundreds of miles of Spanish countryside. Seriously, I don't think I've ever been able to see so far in my life! I absolutely loved it there. I wanted to stay forever. The weather was beautiful too, briskly autumn with breeze and sun, but not too cold! Here's a picture:

We stayed the night in a town called Jaca, about 2 hours from Loarre and 30km from the border with France. It was pretty, but sorta far from everything. The next day we saw two Romanesque cathedrals, one in the smallest town in Spain to have a cathedral, called Roda de Isabenda. This town only has 30 families inhabiting it, that has to be only about 200 people in total. The cathedral had an open crypt- like it was just there, no stairway or basement or anything. That was pretty unique. We had two hours journey on the bus both ways- to Roda and then out to Huesca.  The next church, which was the cathedral of Huesca, was an interesting mix of Romaneque base and a gothic arched top, because the original roof was wood and had been destroyed by fire. This cathedral had a weird little chapel devoted to two child saints who were martyred, it was wierd because they really hadn't done anything to get sainted besides having been killed by having thier throats slit (there was a lovely painting of that, but aparently their relics had performed miracles and so they became famous and the patrons of lots of places in Spain.... Don't ask me...

In general, I really liked getting to be in the North. It's just so beautiful, I want to live there someday. But being on the bus for soooooo long was just really not so fun. I realized that you can't work on a bus, no matter how hard you try, you just fall asleep. Oh well, they celebrate Columbus Day here so I had off school and did all my work today.

If you want full picture album check my facebook, they are very pretty landscapes mostly. Well, next up is Prague!!! I can't wait. My life is getting interesting here, contact me for details. :)

Otherwise, everyone take care and I'll talk to you later!

Much love to all,
A