Sunday Tarragona

Steph and I met at Passeig de Gracia at 9 and found out that our train was at 9:30. We found the platform and the train came. They don’t have assigned seats, but we got a 4-seater section. We looked out the window at the outskirts of the city and then at the mountains off to the right. They were fairly dusty looking with Mediterranean plants on them. The scenery was yellowy, the ground and the plants. We were mesmerized and then we realized that we'd been missing the ocean off to the left! It was a beautiful rich blue color. Even though the weather report said it might rain, the weather was pretty clear and perfect looking.

At the train station, we got a map but didn’t really look carefully at it. My guidebook had told us that there were basically 2 main streets: Rambla Nova in the newer area and Rambla Vella had the old stuff. They were parallel and we thought maybe we’d walk up one and down the other. We had to go up some stairs to get to either. We came to Nova first. It had a big statue on the end of it.


It was a nice tree-lined street. Well, tree-lined pedestrian area in the middle and traffic going in either direction on the sides. We decided we wanted the old quarter, really. We continued along the sidewalk after looking at our map. The sidewalk was practically on a balcony around the end of the streets.


Below, we could see the sea and then as we rounded the corner, we noticed the amphitheater. Let’s GO!
We found out the amphitheater was under construction so we had to go up a hill around the edge of the park around the theater and down the miracle stairs (after St. Mary of the Miracle) to get to it.

There was a HUGE old tree at the edge of the amphitheater. It's amazing to see something so thick and monsterous. I was intrigued by how the tree had stayed fairly short. If you just saw the outside of it, you might not even guess it was old.
We got our tickets and went in. It was built in 1 or 2 AD. The stands were divided by social classes with a special platform for the authorities. There were gates on 3 ends and holes in the middle that were covered with wood so scenery could be moved.


The amphitheater was primarily used for "spectacles that involved bloodshed" like wild animal fights, gladiator battles, executions, and hunts. There were also more tame acts, like jugglers and athletes.

My first thought upon seeing the amphitheater was that I wanted a picture of myself in the big arc at the far end of it between it in the sea. I found out quickly that there was a fence to hold me in by the stairs so I had to settle with one at the TOP of the steps.

And Steph and I practiced our self-timer usage.


We talked about how strange it is that things like this can possibly have been around as long as they have. To think of all of the people that sat on the steps in the last 2000+ years.
Then we walked back up the miracle stairs and found a cute little park with an information booth.


The guide inside said that most stuff was going to close at 3. Well it was already pushing toward noon. We realized we needed to prioritize. We got out our (now) two brochures and marked off things we didn't care about and circled the things we wanted to try to get to.
Priority 1 was the Circo-Pretorio, the Roman Circus from the first century AD. Steph was most interested in the building meant for horse and chariot races, but there was also a Roman Tower in the Provincial Forum Representation Square (whatever that means). It had been turned into a royal residence in the 14th century.
We had to go around the block to a cute little square to get to the front door where they'd sell us a ticket.

There was a statue of two babies nursing from a wolf from some Roman myth story by the front door. Inside, you're in a huge tower. We went down the deeply colored wooden steps and paid our entry fee. Then we went straight for the hallways on the brochures.


They were long and made out of pale bricks. They were really neat. To the left side, there were lots of rooms. Some of them were single and some of them connected to a back room that connected to the room next door.


At the end, there was a bigger room with a hole out the side. We could see people hanging their laundry. It was a little surreal to be in the midst of so much old stuff, imagining people preparing for chariot races in the room and thinking about romans and then to be shoved out of the dream back to the modern world.

I joked about how I was too big to be a Roman becasue I had to duck to get through every doorway. Also, we joked about how inventive the Romans were as we passed a port-o-potty.

We went down an open corridoor into another sort of hallway. This one was MUCH taller-- massive, really. This one also had rooms off to the side of the hallway.
At the end of the hallway, was a stairway. you could go onto the roof of the arched hallway and up to the tower beyond.


Then we went back through to the main building. We went up its MANY flights of stairs to see some small exhibits. There was a chunk of an old Roman column, which looked SUPER cliche-Roman.

There was also the bottom of a... something Roman with a Roman myth carved around the outter edge.

Steph recognized the story about a mother and her son in law or nephew or somebody getting together and the king finding out and sentencing the guy to death and then the mother committing suicide? Maybe? Something very Roman and dramatic like that!
Part of the exhibit also told about how the building had been used as a jail and holding place for people who were for or against (I forget) the regime at the time.
On the top floor, they had a different kind of architecture. They had a nice view out some shapely windows. They also had a wooden model of the old town that was quite cute. I thought that was nice until we went onto the roof and saw the old town for ourselves. Why would they make a model when it still looks exactly the same?! I was obsessed with the view. It had such rich colors-- bold yellows and deep reds. The sky was looking slightly ominous and grey but it was sunny!


I'm putting 2 versions of the same picture, I love it so much.
Then we decided that we were hungry. We wandered around a couple of alleyways and came on a square with a random hunk of wall in it with holes in that. How odd, those Romans! Apparently, it used to be a longer wall. It's now called Forum Square.

We found a cute little restaurant for our lunch. It was in a secluded, partially shaded section of the square right next to 2 other restaurants, all full of people soaking in the day. We wanted atmosphere for lunch too!

We spent a WHILE looking at the menu and decided we'd have a proper tapas lunch. We wanted to play REAL Spaniards since we were having a late lunch in the middle of a square.

We chose what we wanted and ordered some white wine and sipped in the scene. We had olives (that had anchovies inside :o), a ham and cheese platter, potates braves, and a sort of bread basket with tomatoes and garlic that we didn't order, but enjoyed. Our food came and we nibbled at it daintily like we didn't have places to be in the afternoon.








TBC...