We rode for another 120 km yesterday to arrive in Zaragoza. It has been around 100F for the five hours of the afternoon, so we had to nap and read in the shade from 12 to 5. I think this is the way we need to ride under such conditions, but it meant that we didn´t arrive in Zaragoza until 10:00. It took another two hours to search (in vain) for hostels, and eventually set off in search of our original destination, the Zaragoza municipal campground. We arrived at 11:55, 5 minutes before the reception desk closed.
Zaragoza is the site of the 2008 Exposition, the modern equivolent of the World´s Fair. the Theme of the Expo is Water and Sustainable Development. Krisztian and I have not missed the irony of this today. As we wander the city, we see new fountains evaporating in underutilized parks, workers laying sod in unaccessible areas along a polluted river, and sprinklers keeping the sod alive, during mid-afternoon, in a climate that is barely amenable to keeping vegetation alive. The Expo was too expensive, so we have just been observing it from its perimeter.
The campground, too, is an extention of the municipal attempts to capitalize on the increased tourism resultant from the Expo. The campground, posing as an "EcoCity,"is by far the most fancy campground that I have ever seen. It was impossible to find, with the transportation infrastructure of this city unable to support cyclists in their journey to this incredibly sustainable campsite. The EcoCity is wedged between an established neighborhood and two new neighborhoods that are in the process of being built, riding on the real estate speculution surrounding the rebirth of an old industrial city. The showers are in a building that looks like it was designed by Eero Saarinen, overlooking a well-lit thoroughfare which is yet to handle traffic. The campsites are carpeted in sod with hard earth two inches underneath- a neat and appropriate substrate that requires a rock-hammer to stake my tent into the ground.
I awoke early with the sun today, and Krisztian and I walked around the city. We had a huge lunch and drank a bottle of wine. We continue to walk around the city, in the pleasant dry heat, having heated discussions on the cultural vampirism and symbiosis between the US and Europe.
Tomorrow we will take a train to Barcelona to visit our friend Bernat from Cornell and my friend Matt from high school.
¡Vale!
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2 comments:
i see the appearance of the word 'speculution' in your post.
i get it. it's speculation pollution, right? i.e. what happens when speculation litters urban landscapes with what appears to be 'housing' or 'commercial space' but is in fact nothing but construction materials put together in the semblance of buildings...
it's too bad the 'eco-city' was such a eco-bubble. the whole conference/world's fair industry has got to rethink their approach, me thinks.
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