Recently, I had the opportunity to go to Monesterio de Piedra (named after the surrounding river) in southern Aragon and a small pueblo named Jatiel about an hour outside of Zaragoza.

The monastery is located in southern Aragon in the mountains. The drive to get there was interesting because we were constantly weaving up, around, and through the mountains. Other than the city of Calatayud (21,000 in population), there aren’t really many other signs of life for the 90+ minute bus ride.

Destroyed during the Spanish Civil War and never repaired.

What really attracts tourists to the monastery isn’t so much the building itself, but the national park surrounding it. There are a significant number of waterfalls in the park as well as caves and great views of the Spanish countryside. We took the main trail around the park which took a few hours, ate at a restaurant at the front of the park, and then toured the monastery. This took up all but a half hour of our time before the bus came to pick us up. I’m not really the type to go hiking but I really enjoyed myself and I suspect nature aficionados could spend a few days there.

I also visited a very small pueblo about an hour outside of Zaragoza called “Jatiel.” The town has a population of around 50 people. I learned that the people were encouraged to move from the pueblos to the cities during the Franco regime so there are a number of ghost towns in Spain even smaller than Jatiel. I was able to go because my host sister invited me to go with her boyfriend and their friends and since I’m here to learn more about the Spanish language and culture, I couldn’t say no even if I had wanted to.

The area around the city is extremely dry and I would say a kind of semi-desert. The dirt is a reddish-brown and there are quite a few rock formations on the outskirts of the town. There really wasn’t much to do in the town other than take pictures and take in the fresh air and open space but I really enjoyed myself since I hadn’t had a break from city life since I came here.

With these two trips under my belt, I’ve really begun to take notice of how stunning the Spanish countryside is. Zaragoza is a flat city and you can never really see anything outside of the city because of the tall buildings. Going on these two trips was a good way to experience a different side of Spain that I hadn’t yet had the chance to see.

A farmhouse on the outskirts of the pueblo

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If you’d like to see more pictures (which I would recommend since I recently uploaded almost 600), check out my Picasa web albums here.

I’ll be writing a blog over Lisbon, Portugal soon which you can view the photos I took (nearly 300) now. Tomorrow I’m heading to London so lots of traveling the last two weeks.

Thanks for reading and until next time!