| Tarragona | ||
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27th April Today we drove virtually non-stop to the seaside town of Tarragona (a few hours south of Barcelona). When we got there, Rob was pretty stressed out, driving on the right hand side of the road, in a city with lots of traffic and crazy Spanish people tearing around on noisy scooters or speeding in their cars, and of course we only had the very basic lonely planet street directory which didn't have all the street names on it and it wasn't long before we were lost! Rob just parked in the first spot we could find and I was absolutely busting for the loo so we dashed out and into the nearest bar for a drink and the toilet. As it was siesta time that's about all that was open, we missed the tourist information office by about 5 minutes. At this stage we were still getting used to the whole thing of nearly all the shops being closed for three hours every afternoon, except for restaraunts or bars pretty much. It seemed that every time we arrived somewhere everything was closed, or by the time we'd gotten up we only had two hours before everything shut again! I think it certainly would be a good way to work though, a really nice way of breakin gup your day, with a 3 course lunch some wine or beer, coffee, dessert, a bit of a nap then going back to work at 5... I could handle that! We decided on a place to eat lunch but found that it wasn't so nice... in fact a few hours after I was starting to feel decidedly dodgy so as soon as the tourist office re-opened we found the car again and drove down the road to the Hotel Marina on the via Augusta. We were almost tempted to leave town before this because we couldn't find a good place to stay but we settled on this hotel a bit further from the city centre (only 5 mins drive) and were pleasantly suprised. Rob did a bit of a splurge and we spent 10.000 pesetas for one night in one of their fanciest rooms. Well it was very nice, a jacuzzi in the bathroom, a huge double bed and long full lenght mirrors, although we kept the curtains closed of the view over the neighbouring caravan park! The hotel is also very near the beach so we decided to have a look in the morning. We weren't really up to checking out the nightlife in Tarragona though so we went to the supermarket and got some supplies for a night in... several hours later Rob was snoring his head off (he slept for 12 hours straight!) and I stayed up reading my book.
 Tarragona's Cathedral
28th April After checking out we went for a short drive down to the beach (Plaja de Miracle) which was a beautiful long stretch of sand looking out to the sparkling blue of the Mediterranean. It was going to be a lovely HOT day (yay!). My sightseeing schedule didn't permit us to stay at the beach too long so we drove up the road and got a parking spot near the Cathedral. The section of the city around the cathedral is very beautiful, a mixture of Roman and Mediecal architecture as Tarragona was once the capital of the Roman province. As we arrived at the cathedral we noticed lots of very dressed up people walking around (more dressed up than usual that is!) as we soon discovered there was to be a wedding that morning. We were still able to go inside the catedral, which has a gorgeous courtyard and cloisters (a home to many stray cats). You could imagine the monks and nuns slowly strolling the cloisters in silent prayer. The catedral also has a small museum of religious and Roman artefacts. Inside the cathedral are impressive displays of the saints and martyrs behind tall iron gates with votiv candles burning. We got to watch as the bride and groom came in to the Wedding March (Mendelssohn) played on teh huge wwoden organ. We didn't stay for the whole ceremony, but it looked to be a full on Catholic Mass and wedding. After our stroll around the cathedral we stopped for a snack at a nearby cafe,just down the stairs and to the right, for some large beers and bocadillos (spanish baguette with filling... mine was always tortilla cos it's about the only vegetarian sandwich you can get). And today was turning out to be the hottest, sunniest day we'd experienced in Spain so far and we were very brown by the end of the day. Next stop was a visit to the old Roman amphitheatre where gladiatorial shows were held and Christians sacrificed to the lions. The structure is located on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean. Although it is now reduced to ruins you can imagine it would have been a lovely place to watch a few Christians get mauled to death by lions. After walking around the city all day, we decided to leave Tarragona and keep heading south in the car........ | Main Spain Page
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