Day 14 Lleida 2^nd Day October 20^th:

The day began clear and crisp somewhere in the low 40s overnight but no clouds in sight. Showers and off to breakfast below. Certainly not a Parador buffet spread by any means but the standard fare was available. The coffee machine was a Nestle brand but the coffee tasted off, Jane thought it was the milk perhaps. She asked the chap for a yogurt who retrieved one from the kitchen stating that it was the last one available. Oh well the food kept the hunger pangs at bay for awhile. We had a plan!  First, La Casa de de Los Gigantes, in the building opposite the new cathedral. They live there between Fiestas. Afterwards we set out for the upper part of the old town and the old Cathedral/castle. We seem to have a competition between us, Jane has her Vivo-fit step counter and monitor as well as Pacer on her phone. My version of Pacer was uninstalled on Day 2 because it refused to count steps anywhere near reality. So now Paul is using the free app Pedometer which is tracking closer to real figures. Jane often takes the stairs so her count is always higher! (hahaha take that Paul)

The  new cathedral replaced the earlier cathedral, La Seu Vella, Lleida located in the highest point in town, and after the 1707 Spanish Wars of Succession, was used as a garrison up until the restoration work began in 1948. The church was constructed in an early Neoclassical-style in using designs by Pedro  Martin Cermeno. The austere building was built with local gray stone, but with a coat of arms of the ruling House of Borbon. It has two flanking bell tower-towers, joined by a terrace with a balustrade. The cloisters are the largest in Europe and quite breathtaking. The cathedral was terribly abused after the 1707 wars, the cloisters bricked in and the beautiful worked almost destroyed. There was a movie showing the destruction and then the wonderful restoration. It made me think about the current destruction going on in Syria and other regions of war and how man is capable of such terrible destruction of supposedly holy buildings and they do it, it seems, with no conscience. It has been happening since time began, glorious structures destroyed in wars.

 A young girl was handing out flyers for a local restaurante for a place down below the old cathedral however, we never found #40 on that particular street instead we opted for what looked clean and appealing as a tiny hole in the wall resturante at # 24 with a Michelin rating instead. Menu of day only 11.90 euros. The food was outstanding, the service impeccable.

After a short siesta and blog writing we wandered the long pedestrian walkway directly behind the hotel. We ended up across a main street in the section of “local” bars. We enjoyed fresh tapas and peel and eat cold shrimp for the first time. A really close knit group of folks at the last place where we had calamares and boquerones.

Now my annual whine about showers in Spain! Seriously people, you have got to get this right. Every hotel has a card on the bathroom counter asking you to please conserve water and reduce pollution in the environment by reusing your towels. I would be more than happy to do this if most of the water from the shower did not land on the floor. If I have to mop up the floor with my towel I am definitely not reusing the towel. There are no restricters in the showerheads so, when you adjust the temperature and turn on the shower there is a good chance the water is going to bounce off the end wall and soak everything before it ejectsitself from the holder, crashes to the tub and sprays indiscriminately, causing a lot of cussing and scrambling to catch the offending nozzle before it leaps out of the tub. One showerhead was very small and no matter how you adjusted the volume of water it felt like a fire hose was stripping off your skin! Now this would not be so bad if there was a shower curtain which extended the length of the tub but…….more often than not there is a 3ft length of glass which really does NOT cut it. If you are a vigorous showerer, which I have learned not to be, water sprays over the top and end of the tub and  seeps under the glass to the floor. Even when you think you have done a good job and kept all the water contained, there is always a big puddle somewhere which requires a large towel to mop it up and make sure you do not break your neck on a slippery floor. Therefore, I am very sorry but until you control the flow of water I am going to continue to have fresh towels, dry towels every day. NB The showers in the Alcala Parador are awesome though you do have to cross the shower floor to access the tub which for me is not a problem but my friend Joyce takes issue with this as she is a tubber kind of gal! Okay rant over! Back to the blog.

Day 15 Lleida to Alcaniz, October 21^st

We kind of ran out of time yesterday. We had intended to visit the New Cathedral but that will be accomplished this morning before we head out for Alcaniz. We packed up, stashed the cases and walked the 100 yards or so to the new church. We have passed it many times but never gone in as Seu Vella seemed to take precedence. It has imposing stairs at the entrance and imposing black iron gates enclosing the staircase. It is handsome building on the outside but upon entering seemed dark and oppressive. There were some stained glass windows but they were small and very high up. Even the people inside were a bit restrained, even grim. I really like to check out the cathedrals and churches and this one did very little for me so after a quick look around we left. Mission accomplished.

After loading up we got on the road to Alcaniz. We are heading for lower Aragon. This province is large and very diverse in scenery with lots of towering mountains, castles and sweeping plains. Paul swears we have never been to this Parador but as soon as we climbed that narrow winding road to the top I knew we had been here before. In fact I checked our old blogs and it was just last year! It is a castle of the Order of Calatreva dating from 1179!  Lovely. We had a late lunch in the dining room and headed up to regroup and rest.