Tossa de Mar
27th April
Tarragona
28th April
Salou/Cambrils
29th April
Tortosa
3rd May
Valencia
8th May
Malaga
12th May
Sevilla
16th May
Madrid
18th May
Barcelona
29th April
On arrival in Tortosa we were at a bit of a loss. There were no train tickets abailable to get out of there that day, or the next, and outside the train station (the road of the main entrance) it seemed like a total ghost town. We looked for a hotel on that side but all we could find was a closed down abandoned thing... it just all seemed so dingy, dusty, dirty and deserted. We went back to the train station and asked the lady where the nearest hotel was, and she pointed across the other side of the train tracks....
.....Well! Talk about being on the wrong side of the tracks!!! The other side of Tortosa was full of people and activity, with trees and parks etc. etc.. We got a double room with Tv, bath and aricon at the Hotel Tortosa Parc for 5,400 ptas a night. As the name would suggest it was opposite a park and the atmosphere was family and friendly
We noticed that there seemed to be some kind of Fair on that all the people in town were queing up to get inside, so we thought we'd better go in and have a look. There was music coming from inside and everyone was going there. Hmm..... well it was an expo.... scooters, tractors, home appliances, food and drink (some free samples of sangria! ).... but we didn't find the whole thing as exciting as the locals, so went across the road for dinner.
From local TV reports it seemed as though there had been a protest in Tortosa that say. 'No transvasament' whatever that means was on banners everywhere around the region. I'm not sure but I think they wanted to protect the Delta region from a Hydroelectricity dam. The music was sounding really happening in the expo so we decided to sneak back in, but suprise suprise, it was still as interesting as it was the first time!
30th April
After a trip to our very friendly English speaking tourist office lady on the main drag, we decided to check out the local market place. Yum! So much fresh, tasty fruit and veg, with meat, fish and bakeries thrown in for good measure. It must be so cheap to eat if you are cooking your own meals, because everything you could possibly need is there at the markets.
Continuing on past the markets took us up towards an impressive, large cathedral (whose entrance we couldn't find) with huge spiral columns and massive doors. Also a large stray cat population was living around here. As you keep walking up the hill you come to the impresive castle on top of the hill (which is now a hotel) as well as the ruins of the fortifications surrounding the area.
Tortosa isn't a big tourist town so you can exlore the ruins in relative solitude and imagine what it would be like discovering this place for the first time. It's a very beautiful area, backed by mountains, with the river dividing the town. A lot of the buildings are very old, and people still live in them. One bad point was that we found a used syringe in the ruins as well as lots of feral cats.
We ended up staying longer than we expected in Tortosa, partly because of the fact that everytime we wanted to go somewhere it was closed! But we did find a really nice bar/restaurant in a sleepy part of town called "Bar Osvan Temple" where they served us a fabulous dish of musclos and other delights. A huge dish of musclos and other shellfish cost us 800ptas ... bargain mate!
1st May
Today was a public holiday and of course everything was closed. The weather was grey and windy. When we made it out of bed we saw the whole town set to go on a fun run. I wanted to join in but Rob wasn't so keen!
Back to the tourist centre and we were told that the Ebro Delta is a beautiful attraction not far from here, where the river meets the sea and creates a unique environment for birds and fish. There is an island that you can go out to and see the flamingos. SO! We got the timetable for the bus and decided to head out to there.
Suprise suprise, the bus thing didn't exactly work out. The lady had told us the wrong bus times, and we ended up goin to the internet cafe on Carrer Parra (Cybernet, 500 ptas/hr) to kill time. The plan was to get a bus to this one town, then get off there and change for another bus to the Delta. By the time we got to l'Aldea we knew we wouldn't be able to see anything on the Delta. l'Aldea was pretty much a dinky town in the middle of nowhere, and there was nothing there except a corner shop selling freshly roasted chickens that smelled absolutely delicious.. probably fresh out of their backyard or something. So Rob bought one and demolished it pretty quickly! Everything in this shop was homemade though, potato chips, lollies, pork rind.....
Well for some reaon we decided not to wait for the bus back to Tortosa, but decided to walk the 12kms back along he highway!! Hmmm.... good idea! It wasn't too bad a walk, apart from the psycho Spanish drivers speeding past us at ridiculous speeds, the eventual rain, the wind and the lack of good toilet spots for myself..... we were exhausted by the time we made it back (took us 2 1/2 hours or something) and I was starving... so I ate and Rob slept before we went across the river to watch a kickboxing match.
The matches were in a local basketball stadium that was used in the Barcelona Olympics. On the whole it was a pretty fun night, although some of the matches were piss weak, but is was complete with a Round 1 bimbo and huge thunderstorm raged outside and poured rain everywhere.
2nd May
Today we made a second attempt to get to the Delta and see the damn flamingoes but all we managed was a sunny day. Everything was closed when we got there.. siesta of bloody course and it wasn't high season... AND we couldn't even get any food because by the time we were hungry it was supposedly 'too late for lunch'!! The nerve! This was our wake up call to get outta Tortosa ASAP so we got a ticket to Valencia and made our final pilmgrimage to the Musclos restaraunt and left on the train the next day.