Other travel notes
- European bathing locations
- Bosanski Brod - how the other half live
- Pianos in France
- A slice of Brod
- World heritage sites
- Barcelona by bike
- The biodiversity of dragons' teeth
- French night trains
- Let's Go! - exploring Gorizia and Nova Goriza
- A lasting legacy
- Plan-free London to Morocco
- Meet and Greet Brussels
- Meet and Greet Lubeck
- What are the chances of missing a connection?
- How do you solve a problem like Monturiol?
- Sports report
- Sunnyland - an anti-war advert?
- Swedish night trains
- The architecture tram
- Third Place
- Taking the train to Spain
- Can this problem-solver solve our biggest problems?
A divine solution to the Zaragoza Delicias problem
Zaragoza is a great place to come and see some monumental buildings, but one of them has a problem.
For me, there was only one reasonable reaction getting off the train at Zaragoza Delicias - WOW.
The sheer size of the building.
It’s like being in an airport terminal with an indoor runway.
It was designed by Carlos Ferrater and José María Valero before the financial crash when cash (and apparently concrete) were aplenty. But spending any length of time here these days, the wow soon becomes an oh…
Why?
To find out, it’s worth visiting another of Zaragoza’s architectural behemoths in the centre - El Pilar.
How big is it? Look at the ants here
Actually, those ants are people. El Pilar, one of Zaragoza’s two cathedrals is just to big to be relatable to humans. Luckily, they found a solution.
They built another church inside
Other mega-stations have redeeming features. Madrid Atocha has its gardens. Barcelona Sants has wall-to-wall shops, bars, ticket machines and people. Delicias is a void which makes people avoid it.
However, there may be a solution. Delicias has a twin, or rather a former self.
The old station building, which was overlooked in the rush to build big is still used today by staff - well they would wouldn’t they?
It’s human sized - relatable.
So how Delicias be made better?
How about learning a lesson from El Pilar - dismantle the old station and movie it inside the new one?