I am so thrilled! I just recieved notification that I was accepted to a program sponsored by the Spanish embassy summer program in Spain in the Universidad de Zaragoza in Jaca. I will be there the whole month of July. I will be with my family and we will be taking day trips around the area ( and of course going to Pamplona for the Fiesta de San Fermín.) The international music festival will be in Jaca at the end of July and early August too!! :p After all of the wonderful posts by Diana on that area...I was intrigued! Now I will see it for myself. This is one of the few areas in Spain that I am very unfamiliar with, so this is very exciting.

On our way there we will be stopping in Galicia to se my family first; and then we will be off to Ponferrada, Burgos, Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Olite...Those paradores in Santo Domingo and Olite look amazingly beautiful. We are hoping to book rooms there. Anyway, I just wanted to share plans with you all. if any one has any specific ideas for anything...or if anyone will be in Madrid the first week of August , let me know....

That looks like a really cool program. Have a great time! I really loved the area. The music festival is great. The Anso valley and Ordesa are beautiful. Good hiking shoes are a must if you are going to do any hiking. I saw lots of folks with tennis shoes in Ordesa and they didn't look too happy. We also had fun mountain biking near Formigal.

Hi everyone!
We arrived in Jaca a few days ago and it is SO lovely. The town has a small and very charming casco viejo that has a lot of ambiente at night. we have been exploring the area and have gone to San Juan de la Peña ( a monastery built into a mountain side...just amazing). We also went to Sos del Rey Católico--the town where Fernando of Aragón was born. It is an amazing little ancient town with winding streets and gorgeous views. I love the classes...they are challenging and very interesting. I will keep you posted. But wow is it great to be back in Spain. ( the sights, the smells, the life... )

Jaca is now in fiestas...the 41st annual Festival Internacional de los Pirineos. The town is really quite busy, so different from the beginning of the month when it was sleepy town. Now the loudspeakers on the Calle Mayor are announcing all of the music events that will be happening each day, the tourists are here and the streets and bars are crowded. I am glad to have seen the real Jaca, yet it is fun to be a part of the action. My classes have ended and I can relax now ---no papers ot write or articles to read and discuss!!

We will be here for 2more days and then we are off to Bilbao for 2 days and then to MADRID I can´t wait. I am dying to walk around Madrid and do all the wonderful things there are to do!

hi all!
We are finally back home in NY after 6 weeks in our querida España . It is always good to get home to the familiar, yet it is so difficult not to be in Spain! It was a fabulous trip, and I promise to write some more very soon and share some of the places we saw and things we did. In the meantime, I did find a website that has many wonderful photos of Jaca that I thought I would share with you, so you can see the town and the surrounding area. It is a gorgeous area...so picturesque! The town itself is very charming and has a fair amount of things to do. The restaurants and bars are abundant! The Festival Internacional de Música Folklórica de los Pirineos is quite a Festival! Although it changes the flavor of the town, it still remains a simple place...with a real Spanish character.
Here is the website I found to give you a sense of the town:
Jaca en Imágenes

How was the housing and also (very important) the local food?
I hope that you write some more.

Regards,

JA

here is a good place to eat while in Jaca;
La Tasca de Ana and here is the general site about the whole area :
Los Pirineos