Olite is a small, quiet, and charming town half an hour form Zaragoza. It has everything you need for resting form bustle and clamor of the city, there is a nice castle, a main square, few restaurants and pubs, and what's the most important bodegas and vineyards with local wine grafts. I had there the best lunch during my trip, in a place called La Muralla, some borrajas and a good fish. If you ever stop there visit the Wine Museum and than go to Piedmonte and Ochoa wine shop.
Pamplona (Iruña) without bull racing is a tranquil city somewhere in north Spain. It has ( at least for me) two great things. The first is a cheap and good wine ( I have a feeling I am slowly becoming an alcoholic or in a sommelier). The second is the night life, the people sitting on the squares having pinxos/tapas and drinking wine; teenagers, students and grandmas:)
If you ever visit the city don't miss hanging out in Ciudadela Park ( there is a similar one in Poznan, Poland called Cytadela ...) green vast of land wrapped by the 500 years old wall...
...and the Camino de Santiago goes through the city you can see, mostly, strange looking people with backpack and hiking sticks and... the shell But you'd better visit the city during San Fermin, the biggest party in Europe:)
Expo 2008 and Zaha's Bridge in Zaragoza
It's such a shame that Expo ground is abandoned now, thousand of square meters of descent architecture and millions of euros wasted and Zaha's bridge that is closed ( there is a bloody fence around, so to cross the river you have to take the next one). Expo ground might have been very nice, modernistic office development, with great parkand an access to the river, but it is a ghost city pretty like the Olympic Village in Athens.
Donosti (San Sebastian)
Pamplona
Olite
Zaragoza
stunnig and spacious train station by Carlos Ferrater
