The leaning towers of Aragon are a familiar sight in Teruel, but in Zaragoza the Mudéjar masterpiece is the tower of San Pablo, an octagonal brick shaft rising above the roofs of the Gancho district, west of the old centre. It is part of the Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon, a UNESCO listing that groups together churches, towers and ceilings built by Muslim craftsmen working for Christian patrons between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries. The brick is the point. Aragon has little good building stone, and the masons made a virtue of necessity by laying bricks in patterns of lozenges and arches that look like lace.
Zaragoza itself is a big, flat, practical city on the Ebro, and approaching it by motorbike you cross dry steppe and irrigated fields, with a skyline of towers and cranes. The wind is the thing to know about. The cierzo, a cold, dry north-westerly, blows down the Ebro valley on many days of the year with enough force to move a parked bike and to make a ride across an exposed bridge an exercise in concentration. Locals say it makes people in Zaragoza a little stubborn.
The city's heart is the Basilica del Pilar, a baroque giant on the riverbank where, according to tradition, the Virgin appeared to the apostle James. Goya, who was born in a village nearby, painted frescoes in its dome. A short walk away is the Aljafería, an eleventh-century Muslim palace that is now the seat of Aragon's parliament. The narrow lanes of El Tubo, between the Pilar and the Plaza de España, are where Zaragozanos go for tapas, and a little glass of wine with a plate of fried mushrooms or a skewer of grilled prawn is a worthwhile pause.
Riding in the city is manageable. Fuel stations are everywhere, traffic is orderly by Spanish standards, and the grid layout is easy to follow. The old centre has some pedestrian streets, and motorbike parking is usually possible on the pavement in designated bays. Take care on tram tracks and on the polished stone of the plazas, which is slippery after rain. In July and August the heat is extreme, and the best time to explore on foot is in the early morning or late evening.