Going to the village where Goya was born

Goya was born on March 30, 1746, in Fuendetodos, which is a little village about 50 minutes drive from Zaragoza going south and on November 3rd, 2013, we were on our way to visit Fuendetodos. The trip itself was uneventful but the countryside that we drove through was very interesting - so very dry with not a lot of greenery and no animals at all. Well, none that we could see. I took a few photos as we drove along but not many were any good. Actually, I didn't take many photos at all, no idea why not!  Here's a couple of the countryside

   

   

This photo was taken from opposite the village and the sign means 'the ruins of war'

I would have liked to investigate this further but we were short of time. Our bus was leaving Zaragoza at 3.30 so no time for dilly dallying.

 Sergio and Yolanda on the way to the carpark

  

The village from the road which goes past it and walking into the village is like going along a driveway and into someone's property, although there's a little dusty road and no gate. The houses are the same colour as the land.

The way to Goya's house was along to the right once inside of the village, there was another little road going up into the middle (I guess).  This photo was taken on the way, it is really a beautiful place

and then we saw this above the window of a house. This decoration was along the top of the house and according to the two women,who just happened to be going into the house as we were passing by, the house used to be the bakery. I did take a photo of the house but it wasn't very good.

and this. According to my translator 'obrador' means 'workshop'. It's on the side of the bakery.

the bigger version of the tiles

The street to his house just inside the village

  

going along the street is Yolanda

The restaurant next to Goya's house. It was closed so we couldn't eat there but, according to google, it's an interesting place to eat.

and .... the unbelievable thing is .... I don't have a photo of Goya's house!!!!! go figure that one! yes, I'm blushing, well, going faintly pink. 

Taking photos inside his house wasn't allowed but I can tell you that it was rather interesting to see inside such an old house, at least 267 years old. It was 2 floors high and the top floor was all one room. The cooking fireplace was enormous with bench seats along each side of it and pots hanging above it. It was sparsely furnished and seemed in good condition although the floors were on interesting slants. 

 Another old house in the village is a museum of Goya's drawings and pictures, a lot we'd seen in Zaragoza the day before at the Goya Exhibition. Which led me to ask, "where are the originals and how do we know if we are, or are not looking at them or at copies?" It was great to wander from little room to little room in a house to see them rather than in the huge, expansive art gallery spaces. 

I did have a copy of Goya's signature that Sergio got for us from the museum to frame and put on our wall at home. It is a very artistic signature! However, we managed to leave it on the bus and whoever found it didn't hand it into the lost property dept so we don't have that either and YES, I was really furious at myself for putting it into the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me, instead of in our bag. I hope that somehow we can get another one before we leave in June. 

We got back to Zaragoza in time to have a lunch of bocadillos which are huge lengths of bread sticks with a couple of different things inside like bacon and cheese or ham and capsicums, and of course a caña (beer). 

And then it was time to say goodbye once again to Sergio, Lourdes and Irene and be off to the bus station and goodbye, once again, to Yolanda and Jose Antonio and be on our way to San Sebastian and then to Azpeitia.

When we first went to The Basque Country we thought how much like NZ it is and didn't really take in the big difference between Aragon, the region where Zaragoza is, and The Basque Country where Azpeitia is, but going from the very green hills of The Basque Country to the very, very dry barren landscape of Aragon the difference between the two areas, for some reason, really hit us and we now understand why people in Zaragoza told us that The Basque Country is "very beautiful" when to us it's 'just like home'. Driving out to and then back from Fuendetodos we really got to see the dry desert region and I feel very lucky to have been there. Thanks heaps Zaragoza people.