After a nearly three hour drive, we got lost inside Tarragona’s old walled town, replete with one way streets and streets that end in staircases. Once parked in yet another underground car park, we found our hotel immediately next to it, located in one of the main eating areas which were almost deserted – it had been raining for most of the day.
A walk showed us the Roman amphitheatre, right next to the beach, the beautiful old town centre – not in a car now – a fine cathedral and, further away, more Roman remains of “Tarraca”.
We also came across this statue, revealing the long established Catalonian pasttime of human scaffolding.
On the way out the next morning we found this additional Roman edifice, a magnificent three level aqueduct. Found, as in we walked off in the wrong direction initially and after a 20 minutes red herring came back to where we had started, to realise we left the car park from the wrong end, whereas bus loads of children had picked the right end. Ooops.
Three hours later, we arrived in the huge and splendid city of Valencia. And drove straight out, on the way to our campsite. Yep, campsite. The time has come. Near a ridiculously long sandy but stony beach, we have a tent pitched in a campsite taken mostly by winnibagoes, hemmed in between the local road (not much traffic) and, yep you know it’s coming, the CV500, one of the main southern feeders into the city (busy even at 2am). So we have another night here before three nights in a hostel with a double room and private bathroom. We’ll, we’ll see ..
We did have a fab paella last night, with chicken, duck, rabbit and snails. Indoors strangely had difficulty encouraging the latter to leave their shells. We’re told this is where paella was invented, so more to come, of course.
Morning has broken, as am I. There is a 20 minutes bus ride from the campsite into the city, so when Indoors has finished snoring and the etcs., we start the Valencia thang. Hope I don’t sleep through it.
Chris & Kath's Travel Time 