Australia by Rail

Hilary Bradt · Colin Taylor

jan 1992 · Hunter Publishing, Inc

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Whattraveling through Spain or any other country boils down to - knowledge, gleaned through the desire to do and see what most travelers simply pass by. The Plaza del Pilar extends along the riverbank from the Plaza de Cesar Augusto to the Plaza de la Seo, encompassing a spectacular range of monuments ranging from Roman times to the present. The Plaza de Cesar Augusto on the western end preserves remains of the original Muralla Romano (Roman Wall), the 15th-century Mudéjar Torreón de la Zuda and the 17th-century Baroque Iglesia de San Juan de los Panetes. With a little imagination it is still possible to visualize the rectangular site of the original Roman town of Caesaraugusta, established by the emperor in 24 BC in the area of the Plaza del Pilar. The Museo Foro Romano de Caesaraugusta shelters excavations in the Plaza de la Seo of a Roman market dated to 19 BC during the time of Caesar Augustus and a town forum built in the first century AD. The Pyrenees Mountains of Aragón comprise the heart of this impressive range separating Spain from France in its skyward thrust from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea. Where the eastern and western flanks of the range descend in the neighboring regions of Cataluña and Navarra, creating gentler landscapes more tolerant of human activity, the mountains of Aragón reach for the heavens in a grandiose setting of alpine extremes and isolation rarely equaled in the country. In its northernmost heights, Aragón claims the highest peaks in the Pyrenees, some of which are still capped by the last surviving Spanish glaciers. These are an undeniable lure to climbers and alpinists and guaranteed to put a smile on any naturalist's face. You can look above to see eagles, falcons and vultures carving the sky or below to the lush valleys descending through fields of wildflowers tramped by chamois, wild boar, roe.