España, part 3: Jaca, climbing, and a late night dinner

Still working on posts from Thanksgiving. It's been a hectic time since then but perhaps I can finish these posts before Christmas! Back to Spain again... Saturday after Thanksgiving, rain predicted. 

Good day for some exploration of Jaca, including the cathedral and five sided defensive structure, complete with an exhibition of miniature battle scenes (more than about 15 in total). 

Fun day of exploration, some down time, a trip to the climbing gym, and finally our “early” dinner reservations of 8:30 PM. Fisher & Carson ordered our kids’ meals for them in fluent Spanish- so cool to see their comfort in Spanish. Stephen spent a good while learning to chew his Spanish steak.

Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, in Jaca Spain-- according to Wikipedia, one of the oldest on the Iberian peninsula, built over time from 1070s to early 12th century. Amazing structure give the time! Chris and Annie are looking at the "measuring" stick encased in the wall of the cathedral to ensure that one "Jaca" unit of measurement stayed consistent over time- Fisher was our guide on this one. 

  

Black & white stones = typical pattern of Jaca 

Peering into the moat and the Castle of San Pedro (the Jaca Citadel, built in the 16th century). 

The kids were off buying candy. Then fueled by sugar, they found the citadel to be a solid place for an epic game of tag (storage sites for gun powder = good hiding places?)

 

 

 

Colter's next job: a security guard?

 

Cool structure for opening and closing the gate; peering through one of the view portals. 

 

 Normally, the first room in the citadel apparently holds mannequins dressed in typical Spanish war gear. They've been supplanted by tomtar (the Swedish word for gnomes).

On the citadel's walls. A view of the kids as they paused for a second. 

  

Deer now inhabit the moats

 

These walls were immense but also quite cool up close

 

Layers of the citadel

 

Trying to figure out if they could stem up the walls

The well and water supply for the citadel, and the old mill stone

 

 

Inside the church, an enormous creche (maybe 10 meters long by 5 meters wide?) 

    

Views from the citadel's courtyward and from within the walls

    

  

 

Inside the walls of the citadel, a museum of miniatures. There is a reason this museum has an entry in the Atlas Obscura: 32,000 tiny soldiers posed in 23 historical settings." The description continues: "In just under an hour, a walking tour through the Jaca Citadel Military Miniatures Museum can take you from ancient chariot warfare in Egypt to the massive rolling tanks of World War II. Created with over 32,000 lead pieces, each under an inch high, the museum chronologically documents the most important battles of human history." This was quite an amazing and unexpected place to visit. 

A full replica of an "emergency" scene

A respite, then a need to climb some walls at the local bouldering gym in Jaca

  

  

Elizabeth and Carson parallel climb

Learning to lead climb... it makes climbing a different sport

 

Dinner that night-- I had a fabulous meal of hake. Fun to try new cuisines... our appetizer was effectively a breadcrumb salad (typical of the area's cuisine). Food = quite different from Sweden!