Tarragona one last day

April 18.

Our last full day in Tarragona and we're just kicking back enjoying not having an agenda. With one exception. 

I had a massage today in the hotel spa. 

I thought a massage might help further along my recovery from the dastardly respiratory bug that has plagued me (us) for the past several days. And near as I can tell it worked. Afterwards I felt quite a bit better after having my muscles tweaked for half an hour.

Anyway, after breakfast we just hung around the hotel until my massage appointment. Afterwards we headed out and this time walked down to the amphitheater located right across the street from the hotel. Well, actually across and down, down, down from the hotel. 

Today was like yesterday in terms of crowds and I don't mean tourists but kids/school groups of all ages. Let's say more like herds of children, the younger ones with matching colored t-shirts presumably so the teachers could keep track of them while the teenagers were seemingly left to their devices. Although a number were given projects presumably having to to do with Tarragona's ancient Roman history with groups queuing up around the historical signs scribbling in notebooks.

They were everywhere, laughing, yelling, and just generally carrying on as teenagers are wont to do everywhere I suppose.

entrance to the amphitheater

Aside from the differences in ships you're pretty much seeing what ancient Roman settlers would have seen.

ships at anchor waiting to get into port

From the amphitheater we headed back uphill before going downhill towards the train station making our way to the beach. 

             

Now the one thing preventing easy access to the beach from town are a series of railroad tracks (in fact the train station is located right along the waterfront). So the city has seen fit to build a rather complicated but efficient way of allowing people to get down to the beach with a series of switchback walking ramps across a roadway and then a foot bridge across the railroad ending up at a pair of elevators that take you right down to the beach level. A short walk down the promenade and you're on the beach.

note the railroad track running parallel to the beach

down to the beach!

Susie's singular goal today was to put her feet into the Mediterranean and so she did. 

        

From the beach we returned back uphill to the hotel. Don't worry, we'll be back down this way tomorrow when we take the train to Barcelona. Back at the hotel we had a lite lunch of a cheese board with two glasses of verdejo.

all local cheeses, the one in the foreground is a goat cheese and the blue was tasty but incredibly salty

After a little downtime in the room it was back out to the Rambla Nova in search of gelato, which was not hard to find.

NATO's Tarragona headquarters?

Returning to the hotel we did some work on the computer and then about 7:00pm headed out for dinner. After strolling through the old quarter looking for a couple of recommended restaurants we soon came to appreciate the local reality, as we should have already known, that nothing happens until 8:00pm.

The day before I recalled see a teppanyaki place right on Rambla Nova so off we went. Although they didn't open officially until 8:00pm and we were a bit early there was already a young woman inside and we were seated without a problem.

The food was delicious, very flavorful and just the right amount for us. We shared gyoza con pollo and I had chicken and rice and Susie opted for the chicken teppanyaki. Satisfyingly simple and simply good.

Dinner over it was back outside into the dark and blustery cold air as we wended our way back to the hotel and bed.

Next: Off to Barcelona!

Tarragona on a Wednesday

April 17.

When arranging our accommodations for this trip we asked Byway to have breakfasts included. While there have been variations of course (the Paris hotel was by far and away the best spread), most venues have generally offered the same rather generous layout of sweet and savory food.

pastries

fresh fruit

meats and cheeses

hot dishes

So, after a leisurely morning (and some 12 hours in bed for me), we headed out for the Yellow Train stop. Located almost outside our hotel entrance, the Yellow Train provides visitors an opportunity to get a fuller sense of the city than one might otherwise see by walking. 

the train is actually blue and white

our driver waiting to check tickets

It also provides a hop-on-hop-off option, which we opted for. The train itself is a bit of an archaic piece of equipment that has seen better days (maybe) and it was unclear where one could actually hop-off or hop-on. We were also warned that later in the day if the train didn't have a minimum number it might not run until the end of the day's run, which meant one would be stranded for a couple of hours or longer at one of the stops.

Anyway, it did give us a fairly good sense of the city, notwithstanding the audio guide was in Spanish only. We did not hop off but instead rode it until it returned to the starting point. However, since we paid for the whole day we planned to take the train again later for another riding adventure.

After grabbing a light lunch of leftover club sandwiches we took a short siesta (it is Spain after all).

From the hotel we walked along the Palm Tree Promenade facing the sea a short ways to the Rambla Nova, the major central street of the city. The idea was to make our way to the central market, one destination that had been on our list.

main entrance to the mercato

A veritable feast for foodies' eyes!

From the market we returned to the Rambla Nova and continued our stroll.

sculpture Tarragona als Castellers in honor of the human towers tradition in the city

memorial to the heroes of 1811

From the market we returned to the hotel and then back out to grab our second train ride of the day.

The tail end of the ride took us through the old town which happened to be right across the street from our hotel. We headed there on foot once off the train. Passing the Roman ruins we wended our way through the narrow streets, reminding us of so many Italian hill towns we had visited in years past.

steps to the city cathedral

Returning to the Rambla Nova we stopped at an outdoor cafe offering two red vermouths for €6! We couldn't pass that up. . .  On our way to the cafe we passed Saona, a restaurant that looked promising for dinner. I went online later and made our reservation.

We arrived at 8:00 pm and enjoyed a lovely meal. Since it was a three-course plan, Susie started with a tomato and toasted bread and I ordered four-cheese croquettes (croquettes seem incredibly popular in this part of Spain). My main was chicken with basmati rice and Susie's a Ligurian pasta with avocado, chicken, burrata. We enjoyed slices of delicious chocolate (me) and lime (Susie) tarts, both with a graham-cracker like crust.

After dinner we headed into the dark and the cool night air coming in off the sea as we haded in the direction of the Mediterranean. A quick 5-minute walk and we were back in our hotel for the night.

Next: A final day in Tarragona.

Train to Tarragona

April 16.

This train trip, short as it was, proved to be the most interesting thus far: we actually had to go through security! Yep - place all of our bags on the conveyor belt just like in the airport and have our tickets examined before we were allowed to proceed down into the bowels of Girona's station for all high-speed trains. Our designated platform - 12.

But everything went smoothly and before long we were on board, found our seats and settled in for the hour or so ride to Barcelona. Once at the major station we were met with no small amount of confusion. In order to find our connecting train we had to pass through turnstiles but since we had no ticket per se a staff member let us through manually, acknowledging our Eurail passes. Then it was down to the platform level where there was yet another staff member answering questions as to which platform our train was coming in on? 11 or 12? At the last minute - 11 wins!

Phew! We were safely aboard our train to Tarragona.

After another hour or so of travel, much of it right along the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, we got off at the Tarragona train station. Our hotel was a short distance from the station but it was all uphill! Fortunately, the city had seen fit to add a large gradual-incline ramp that crossed over a road and double-backed onto itself before getting us near the top. Once there we had a handful of steps to navigate as we neared the hotel.

Unfortunately, the directions given via Google (not always 100% reliable) had us walking all around the back of the hotel before finding the main entrance.

Checked in, we settled in and then headed out for a stroll in the afternoon sun.

The hotel: H10 Imperial Tarraco

our hotel right rear, Roman amphitheater far left

Across from our hotel are Roman ruins, reportedly an ancient circus, and also a Roman amphitheater. 

remains of the Roman circus

the promenade directly in front of our hotel

View of amphitheater from the promenade

our hotel in the background

We returned to the hotel and decided to check out the rooftop bar and plunge pool. Lovely views of the city and the Roman ruins, but the bar was not open. We were informed they had limited hours since it's not high season just yet.

Back down to the ground floor we settled in to the bar and had a glass of wine, eventually joined by a pair of club sandwiches for dinner. We turned in early as I bounce back from the cough and fatigue. Here's to a full recovery!

Next: The Yellow Train!